BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 20th, '22, 20:24

Ross’ voice already seems gone as the show goes on the air.

Schiavone was hyping up that tonight “Sting would wrestle on TBS for the first time in twenty-one years.” They do this sort of thing often about TBS (and with TNT in the past), and they need to stop. First of all, in the case of Sting, it reminds us how old he is. We know he’s old, but don’t rub it in.
More importantly, though, it’s one of those things that WWE does that AEW needs to avoid, which is fake hype about something that NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY CARE ABOUT, just to have something to hype. I’m not slighting Sting here at all. What I’m saying is that if you’re someone excited by the idea of seeing Sting wrestle, you don’t give a sh*t WHICH CHANNEL YOU’RE WATCHING WHEN IT HAPPENS, and the fact that they’re hyping up the mere idea that Sting is wrestling on this channel- not his match-up, but the mere fact that he is wrestling on this channel- feels silly when we saw him wrestle a few weeks ago in this same promotion and same environment that just happened to be on a different channel.


JOHN MOXLEY RETURNS- TREMENDOUS!
As he started to talk, some fan started to heckle him. I couldn’t here exactly what the fan said, but it must have been bad, because Moxley told him to “go f*ck yourself” and then asked security to “get that guy out of here.” I will admit that Moxley being Moxley and wrestling being wrestling (and probably the fact that I’m watching this on my computer with SlingTV rather than on a TV screen), it took me a moment to realize that he just said “f*ck” on national television.
Are those tattoos on his forearms new?
Moxley cut an absolutely wonderful promo here about life that also applies to wrestling. It was the sort of thing that you can definitely see be laying the groundwork for a heel turn, but it doesn’t force the direction, which is a good thing, I as I don’t think fans are going to be booing Moxley any time soon.

MJF PROMO-
Wardlow was standing in the background for this. He claims Punk cheated to beat Wardlow last week. He also insults Wardlow in the process. What does MJF get out of provoking Wardlow? Where is the diplomatic skill we have seen out of the character at every moment he needed to use it (i.e. in the Inner Circle storyline) until this storyline started? It’s just gone, and seemingly only for the purpose of allowing this story to happen.
Ah. Wardlow is here because MJF wants to apologize to him. That’s nice. Well if the whole purpose of this was for MJF apologize to Wardlow, why the hell would he needlessly insult him thirty seconds before?
MJF delivered a very nice apology to Wardlow… and then told him that because Wardlow put his hands on him, he’ll have to dock Wardlow’s pay. And he made sure to mention that it was Wardlow’s birthday, too. Why not just go full-on Fuller-style on this and have the announcers note that due to this dock in pay, Wardlow won’t be able to feed his family unless he gets a lot of merch money from fans buying his t-shits and 8x10s?
Yes, the idea is for MJF to be a dick, but that’s only half of the equation. They also need to get people to actually like Wardlow, and they have done absolutely nothing to move towards that end. Why should I as a fan give a sh*t if Wardlow’s pay is docked? He’s a jerk who is working for a known jerk. He’s getting what he deserves. It’s just like with this stupid contract. No one made him sign this contract to work for MJF. He did it willingly.
And oh my G-d this stupid contract! It has now been three weeks since we learned that Wardlow’s contract with MJF states that MJF will be the holder of any championships Wardlow wins. This should be completely unacceptable to AEW. It’s really no different than selling a championship. MJF would get the championship as a result of giving Wardlow money. In this case it just happens to be that MJF preemptively paying a salary in exchange for any titles Wardlow might win in the future as opposed to Ted Dibiase paying Andre the Giant a lump sum for a championship Andre already had. In kayfabe, this would a travesty. Championships cannot be bought and sold. They need to be earned. That’s why making up your own belt is a heel move (Ted Dibiase, Larry Sweeney, Taz in AEW) unless you’re a babyface who it feels like (and who the fans feel like) is constantly getting screwed out of the title (Taz in ECW).
This is the sort of thing that AEW management should have addressed two weeks ago, but there has been nothing. Nothing on the air, and nothing even off the air, as MJF is still under the impression that if Wardlow wins the TNT Title, it will be forfeited to him.
And the most frustrating part about this is that this whole stupid thing isn’t f*cking necessary! I haven’t watched any Jaguars games recently so I don’t know what the card for the next PPV is going to be, but if you’re trying to have Wardlow turn on MJF and you need something for MJF to cost Wardlow, how about this scenario:
Do a world title #1 contendership tournament. MJF, Punk, and Wardlow would all be in it. Have MJF win his semifinal and have Wardlow vs. Punk in the other semifinal. MJF tells Wardlow he wants him to injure Punk, but once Punk makes his big comeback and has Wardlow down and seems to have things won, MJF runs in for the DQ, attacking Punk with a weapon, and setting up Punk vs. MJF in the finals on the PPV (Punk vs. MJF in a #1 contendership match feels like what they’re building to, anyway). This way not only has MJF cost Wardlow something real and without forcing Wardlow to act out of character, but you also subtly put over the idea that MJF doesn’t think he can beat Wardlow. Then, if you want to turn Wardlow immediately you have MJF call for interference at the PPV and have Spears try to interfere only for Wardlow to stop him (an actual babyface turn by doing something honorable rather than one heel merely turning on another), or if you want to take it slow, you simply have MJF call for Wardlow’s help at the PPV and have Wardlow not come out. And none of that needs a f*cking contract that Wardlow is a moron for signing and which AEW management should be appalled and needs to address but isn’t.

MIXED TAG TEAM MATCH: Adam Cole & Dr. Britt Baker, DMD vs. Orange Cassidy & Kris Statlander- 2.5/10
Why does Britt’s entourage disappear whenever she is playing “Adam Cole’s girlfriend?”
When the bell rang, we were told (and the announcers seemed to be assuming) that the men had to wrestle the men, and the women had to wrestle the women. We started out with Britt tagging out to Cole to get away from Statlander, then Cole tagging Britt back in to get away from OC… which was silly, as it defeated the point of Britt’s tag. The announcers claimed it was “mind games, but I fail to see what game is being played? Any change forced by Britt and Cole to escape can just be undone by OC and Statlander tagging.
Anyway, OC had balled up his fist and Britt egged him on to punch her in the face, presumably because intergender violence would result in a DQ. Then OC did his stupid little kicks to Britt… and wasn’t disqualified. The whole time, Paul Turner is yelling at OC to get out of the ring. Dude! He’s clearly not listening to you. Start the ten-count (it’s still a ten-count in AEW, right?)!
Actually, now that I think about it, it’s kind of silly that a tag wouldn’t be completely automatic once the other team has made one, otherwise an opposite-gender wrestler could just refuse to get out of the ring, and no one would legally be able to attack anyone.
Britt finally stomped on OC’s foot to end this stupidity and he stumbled off… and Statlander just hopped into the ring without a tag, and the referee had no issue with it. So why didn’t she just jump in as soon as Cole tagged Dr. Baker back in? She thought it was worthwhile to let OC risk a disqualification just to do his stupid, no-damage kicks?
And what purpose did ANY of this serve? NONE! If Orange Cassidy fans want to see him do the same stupid schtick he does every match, there are clips of that sh*t all over YouTube and Twitter. Don’t waste time in a match on a spot that does absolutely nothing for the match other than make the babyfaces and the referee look stupid.
Statlander got a move off on Britt, then Britt countered and tagged in Cole… and instead of go to her corner like she is supposed to, the babyface illegally distracted the heel so that her partner could get an advantage. Britt ran in at OC, so Statlander ran in. She got the better of Britt and went for a delayed vertical suplex, which has to be, of all of the legal maneuvers in a wrestling match, the single stupidest thing to do in a situation where you are the illegal partner running into the ring. She held Britt up for a while- well past what should have been a ten-count- and then, just to make it worse, they finished the spot by having OC push on Britt to “assist” the move by adding more force… which intergender violence and should have been a DQ but wasn’t.
For those keeping track, we are about three and a half minutes into this mixedtagteam match, and for all but about thirty seconds of it, they have been ignoring both the “mixed” and the “tag” parts.
Heels are on the floor now and the babyfaces go to the apron… and with everyone outside of the ring, it shouldn’t surprise you that referee Paul Turner is not counting anyone out, because why even have rules?
The babyfaces each do a dive onto the heels. Britt did a HORRENDOUS job of making it look like she wasn’t deliberately trying to let Statlander hit her. Now that we got our spots, the count-out can start. The babyfaces showboated, wasting a bunch of time until the heels leveled them with superkicks. You know… that thing that heels do to set up the babyface’s comeback. And the referee has now stopped counting them out to yell at them to get back in the ring. In other words, he stopped doing a thing that would impose actual consequences on them if they didn’t get back in the ring in order to tell them to get back into the ring in a way that doesn’t bring consequences.
They went to a commercial after this, and apparently at some point during the break, the advertised rules of the match went into effect. So much did they go into effect that they made sure that Cole was distracting the referee while Britt ran in and hit OC with a curb stomp. Again… anything OC did to Britt before (the dumb kicks and assisting the vertical suplex) was okay, but this needed the referee distracted and we’re supposed to be outraged at it.
Statlander then came in because Britt had tagged herself in before the aforementioned distraction and curb stomp. The ref saw the tag and made the tag signal, but Statlander just stood there on the apron for almost fifteen seconds, because the plan was that this other spot had to happen first. F*ck this sh*t.
Statlander finally gets her lazy ass in the ring and gets the advantage on Britt. She heads to the top rope, but Adam Cole slides in to cover Britt’s body with his own, thinking that if Statlander did her high-risk move and hit him it would be a DQ. Statlander did the move anyway, right in front of the referee, and there was no DQ.
(Also, can someone please explain to Adam Cole that if his objective is to protect Britt from the force of Statlander’s move, he should be making sure there is as much air between him and Britt as possible, so that force of the move that is transferred to him will transfer to the mat, not to her. By lying down on top of her, he’s protecting her from less of the force and adding his own weight into the force that crashes into her).
Cole and Britt hit Destroyers. OC kicked out of Cole’s. Cole and Britt went to get a table. They set it up at ringside. Cole got back into the ring and Britt got onto the apron. OC went for the Orange Punch but Cole avoided it, and OC crashed into Britt, knocking her off the apron and through the table. The ref went to check on her instead of paying attention to the legal wrestlers, allowing the furious Cole to hit OC in the nuts, because G-d forbid Adam Cole get a clean win over Goofball the Clown. Cole hit the running exposed knee and called the referee back to count the pin for the victory.
So yeah. This just sucked. It certainly wasn’t the worst Orange Cassidy match I’ve ever seen, but it was almost certainly the worst I’ve seen from Britt or Statlander, and the third worst from Cole, down to a horrendous turd of a match he had with Matt Jackson at a fall ROH show in 2015 that was so bad it has stuck in my memory for YEARS despite it being on arguably the most forgettable show in ROH history (Reloaded Tour: California), and an only slightly better match against Bull James that I found while trying to remember exactly which year the Cole vs. Jackson match was, although in the James match my notes but pretty much all of the blame on James’ bad selling and whichever idiot decided that Bull James had to kick out of everything and needed both low blows and interference to put him down (if you feel like torturing yourself, that match is ROH Road to Final Battle 2016: Ft. Lauderdale).
And this wasn’t just a “BRM gets angry when they don’t follow the rules” thing, either. The psychology was often ass-backwards, and there were quite a few points where Statlander and Baker looked way too much like they were working together to do a spot rather than wrestling against each other in a competition. Throw in the overbooking, and this just sucked.

Is it just me, or does the babyface corner have a tag rope and the heel corner not have one?


ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO AND LAX- bad
Marvez tells us that Eddie Kingston was injured at the hands of 2.0 and Garcia. I write reviews and compile news for a pro wrestling website, and it took me a minute to remember that Kingston is, in fact, injured. The reason for that is that the injury is a shoot, and was discovered after Rampage went off the air with the image of Jericho and Kingston having a shouting match. I understand that the dude is injured, but if you went off the air with the image of Kingston seeming fine and having a shouting match with Jericho, you can’t just have Marvez casually say that he was injured last week, because it feels like BS and confuses people. You need to show a clip of the injury (or even just the spot you want to kayfabe claim caused the injury), and then show us a Tweet or something from Kingston or the company announcing what the injury is. This shouldn’t take more than forty-five seconds, but it’s an important forty-five seconds because by doing it you don’t look like you completely forgot what happened at the end of the previous show.
Jericho goes out of his way to be a dick and say he doesn’t care about Kingston, right in front of his two pals who are friends with Kingston. Thankfully, Ortiz spoke up and called Jericho out on this. Santana took it a step further and wondered if Kingston was right and that Jericho was the reason they weren’t the tag champs. He asked Jericho “when have you ever had our backs?” and suggested that even though next week is supposed to be a six-man tag, they might try to prove themselves by leaving Jericho out of it.
Yeah, Jericho was a dick here, but why are LAX buying into Kingston’s crap? Kingston tried the same thing with the Lucha Bros and he didn’t make them tag champs. He didn’t help Butcher & Blade become tag champs, either, and he didn’t win the belts himself with Moxley, so why do they think he can help them?
As for the idea that Jericho has never had their backs, I have noted (and called out) times when Jericho or others in the Inner Circle didn’t seem to have LAX’s backs, but I’ve also noted it the other way as well, when they weren’t there for Jericho or others, and when others weren’t there for others in that group, so to criticize Jericho for not being there for them feels hypocritical. Not only that, but the fact that there were feuds when others in the group “weren’t there for them” shows that LAX were, in fact, focusing on themselves rather than the group as a whole (whether willingly or not) and they still never won the tag champs, so how will focusing on just themselves once again change anything?
Also, if we are to believe that Jericho (and, by extension, Sammy and Hager, though I doubt Tony Khan thinks we’ll be thinking of that) have wronged LAX by not being there for them in their various hours of need, then why wasn’t said absence called out at the time? Something can’t be okay at the time, but the become not okay in hindsight when the storyline suddenly needs it to be not okay (barring some other revelation, of course, but I doubt we’ll get one).

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS ADAM COLE- good but…
Cole shoos Marvez away and then cuts a great angry promo on Orange Cassidy, saying he wants revenge on OC for injuring Britt, and he will get it next week when he challenges OC to a no DQs, no count-outs, Lights Out match.
You remember the “Lights Out” match, right? That’s the one that doesn’t count. What is its purpose? Why would you specifically challenge someone to a match that doesn’t count? We see street fights and ladder matches and so forth all the f*cking time. It’s not like the “Lights Out” part of the stipulation is necessary for Cole to be able to use weapons to his heart’s content. The only thing the “Lights Out” stipulation does it make it so that the result doesn’t count towards the records… except the records don’t mean sh*t, anyway, as I have shown on what feels like at least a bi-weekly basis!
But even if the records were actually made to mean something, then what does adding that stipulation do for us?
Scenario 1: Cole wins… in which case you’re clearly pushing Cole (he’s the top guy in the rankings and undefeated), which case not improving his record seems counter-productive… unless you’re trying to push OC, which case why not have OC win instead, and have that win count?
Scenario 2: OC wins, and like with Britt and Thunder Rosa last year, the idea is that the babyface beat the heel in the blow-off, but the heel can claim it “didn’t count.” Does that get heat? Maybe. But even if it does, it’s the cheapest and stupidest of heat because it’s the promotion allowing a completely pointless loophole (no one has ever explained why AEW would even want a match where it doesn’t affect the records) in order for the heel to cling to a claim that we all know is only true to do a technicality.
That might sound like a good idea, but the key to that heat is that we all know it’s bullsh*t and the heel really did lose… and if the idea is that we all know that the heel really did lose, then the heel is still diminished for the loss. There is no “protection” from losing a Lights Out match (If there were, then the babyface’s win would be equally irrelevant, and thus nothing would be gained), so why not just put the f*cking loss on his record? We’ll all know that he won’t be undefeated anymore, so why f*ck around with it?

CM PUNK VS. SHAWN SPEARS VIDEO PACKAGE- meh
For Spears they just replayed excerpts from his terrible promo from Rampage. Punk’s promo was totally focused on MJF.

SHAWN SPEARS vs.CM PUNK- no rating, meh segment
As he had told us he planned on doing, MJF was on commentary for this match. The match consisted of Punk immediately hitting a GTS for the win. It’s good to see that Tony Khan has finally decided to start pushing Spears to the level that everyone with a last name other than “Spears” or “Rhodes” thinks he should be at.
Punk challenged MJF to come fight him but MJF wouldn’t. Punk went to celebrate on a turnbuckle facing away from the announcers’ desk, so MJF tried to sneak up on him, but Punk figured out what MJF was doing (hell, he probably went to the corner he did just to bait MJF into doing it), so MJF backed off. Unfortunately, their timing was a little off, so it was pretty clear that MJF deliberately slowed down to give Punk the time to turn around and jump down.
Punk managed to grab MJF by the scarf, but took forever to try to punch him, so MJF was able to escape. This would have worked better if they hadn’t felt so much like they were trying to milk it.

BILLY GUNN HAS “COMMANDEERED” ONE OF THE BACKSTAGE CAMERAS TO TALK TO CHRISTIAN BY THE LOADING DOCK- meh
We cut to Billy, just in time to hear him say “hey, man, you’re going to want to shoot this.” I know this is a nit-pick, but that’s the thing that Billy should be saying before we cut to his camera. Otherwise, why did we cut to the camera he commandeered instead of whatever was scheduled for right now (i.e. whatever was on standby in case Punk vs. Spears didn’t go the distance).
Christian has apparently shown up to work forty-five minutes late. Billy Gunn proposes that his sons get a tag title shot because they are one of the top five teams in AEW. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request (although it’s a little silly for them to be in the top five when they I don’t they have ever gotten a single win on TV. The last time they wrestled on TV, was FIVE MONTHS AGO, when they were still babyfaces. The specific duo in question, Austin and Colten, have wrestled literally ONE MATCH as a pair- meaning as a trio with their father- that wasn’t on Dark, and that was that big Casino Battle Royale at Revolution 2021).
Christian says that they never win big matches… which isn’t wrong, but if they’re ranked #2 and they’re winning all of these matches, part of that is on AEW for not giving them better opponents now that they have been consistently dominating the jobbers. Christian proceeded to be kind of a dick to Billy, saying that the kids haven’t gotten that “statement win” because “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Christian told Billy to “make a statement, then we’ll talk,” and started to walk away… only to be ambushed by Austin and Colten. They ran him into the metal garage door thing a few times.
Obviously this was a planned ambush, but Billy’s request was not at all unreasonable based on the way we’re supposed to perceive AEW’s rankings and records, so Christian came off like a total dick here, to the point that when he said “make a statement” and was then immediately jumped, I cheered, because he deserved it. Excalibur tried to say it was “completely uncalled for,” but Christian was pretty much asking for it.
I have to say that of all of the possibly match-ups between the “why did you even bother signing them?” old former WWE guys AEW has, Billy Gunns vs. Christian is the only one where if you put it on my TV screen, I not only wouldn’t roll my eyes, but would even go so far as to say “you know what? I think that could be pretty interesting in 2022.”

CODY PROMO- Say what you will about modern WWE, but this sh*t would NEVER be allowed to happen (unless it was Vince himself going crazy and doing it)
There is a ladder in the ring.
Cody was getting “SHUT THE F*CK UP!” chants, but ended those by starting to talk about CM Punk’s “pipe bomb” promo (though I’m pretty sure that Punk never mentioned the Young Bucks at any point). Once the fans realized that Cody was about to cast himself as someone who actually followed through on doing the things Punk talked about (going to ROH and NJPW) they started chanting “SHUT THE F*CK UP!” again. He made a “Really? Come on, guys,” face, at which point I was really hoping the crowd would switch to “YOU DESERVE IT!” until he started to talking again, at which point they could switch back to “SHUT THE F*CK UP!”
He said that he did all of those things, and that the was the one who “carried” the “anti-monopoly sentiment.” Then he flat out broke kayfabe and said “you want to know why I won’t turn heel? Because you cheered when I needed you the most.”
He said “when I say there is more than one royal family in wrestling, I am talking about me… and all of us.” Oh, f*ck off.
Now he’s going really off the rocker. He says “If you an ‘industry journalist’ who covers what we do, and you disagree with anything that I say here tonight, you’re not a journalist.”
Yeah. He really said that.
Also, how crazy is it that he was willing to say “turn heel” but insisted on saying “industry journalist who covers what we do” instead of just saying “sheet-writer?”
Cody says that he was the one who “built” the Forbidden Door.” You know… because ROH and New Japan weren’t working together back in 2014, well before Cody left WWE, or that Drew McIntyre wasn’t bringing his buddies from TNA and other places into his anti-WWE faction in EVOLVE moths before Cody managed to pull off working for ROH and TNA at the same time.
Happy about the positive reaction his ignorant and false statements got, Cody continued on. He said that he was gone for just two weeks “and the Young Bucks almost started the Wednesday Night Wars all over again.” It took me forever to figure out what he meant, which was “teasing a feud with guys who just came from NXT.” He said he didn’t need to see the Bucks “beat developmental” again. I REALLY hope he got some sort of approval before saying all of this, because this feels, to me, like he 1) buried reDRagon and 2) reframed the issue between them and Bucks in a way that the story they are telling does not want us to think about it in, just to get himself a pop for insulting NXT, mere moments after telling us that doing something that would “restart the Wednesday Night War” was not a good thing for AEW to be doing. Thankfully, the fans booed this.
Cody then got upset because his “real-life friend” Ricky Starks was confronted by Jay Lethal. You’d think this start was going to lead to him being angry at Lethal, but instead he just advised Ricky to avoid the Lethal Injection because it is “the one cutter in the business that people don’t kick out of.”
He’s not making sense, he’s getting facts wrong, he’s meandering all over the place, he’s randomly breaking kayfabe. This is Roddy Piper in TNA… from a guy who appears to be completely sober.
Now he’s putting over Malakai Black and Brody King. His only actually good line here was “we’re not in the business of renaming people like Gunner McGilliabuddy or whatever the hell it is,” but even that comes with the qualifier of the extremely awkward “we” and the whole idea of “renaming.”
First of all, AEW absolutely does rename people. 2.0 are not going by Shane Matthews and Scott Parker in AEW. They have new AEW names (hell, before they were in WWE, the team had actually become 3.0, so even 2.0 is renaming). Andrade el Idolo” and not “La Sombra.” Ruby Soho is not her pre-WWE Heidi Lovelace. And, of course, there is THE GUY YOU MENTIONED AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PARAGAPH. He’s not Tommy End in AEW. He’s Malakai Black.
And, of course, framing it with “we” as in the company comes close to breaking kayfabe, as when a wrestler shows up with a new name, it is usually portrayed as if that was their name all along or as if that is what they are choosing to be called, not that the company comes up with the names.
Cody says it takes “balls” to “come to AEW and call yourself Brody/Brodie” and “I’ll let you find out in eight years what a mistake that was when that kid shows up.”
Dude… What do you want him to do? That’s his name! If Brodie Lee Jr. has a problem with that, then Brodie Lee Jr. is f*cked up. Hopefully this is just Cody projecting his own insane egotism onto someone else.
And really! Cody starts out by saying that it’s dumb to rename people when they show up in your company, and then immediately criticizes someone for not changing his name when he showed up. And this was all completely apropos of nothing. He’s just rambling around doing his best to say thing that will get pops.
Then, he changes track and starts to talk about the legacy of the TNT Title. He says that for years we have been conditioned to think of any title without “world” in the title as a “secondary belt.” He says “we don’t have secondary belts.” Bullsh*t. The AEW World Title ALWAYS headlines the PPV. The TNT Title NEVER has, and I severely doubt we’ll be seeing the TBS Title headline a show where the Women’s World Title is on the line, either.
Cody finally addresses the fact that there are now two AEW TNT Champions running around. He says that Tony Khan has mailed both him and Sammy Guevara contracts… and takes the time to say “maybe it’s not the contract I wanted,” talking about something else completely that won’t make much sense to people who aren’t following wrestling news on the internet. Well… this is a WWE alternative on a Turner station. Why should anyone learn from anyone else’s mistakes?
Remember that ladder I mentioned in the beginning? Cody started to climb it, and challenged Sammy Guevara to a unification match on next week’s show. Why is this a ladder match? So what if there are two titles? A normal match will work just as well for the purposes of unifying titles, and there is no heat in this feud. He’ll, it’s barely even feud. It’s really more just a program.
Well… this promo was Cody’s ridiculously desperate stunt to get cheered this week, and next week said desperate stunts to get cheered will be more literal, I guess.

Seriously… if you can’t take getting booed, this isn’t the right profession for you.

There was a fan who brought sign supporting “Darby Allen.” What kind of person is such a big fan of someone that they are bring a sign, but not a big enough fan to know how to correctly spell the wrestler’s name?

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS JADE CARGILL, MARK STERLING, ANNA JAY, AND JOHN SILVER- bad
Apparently Jade made an open challenge for the title, and Anna Jay accepted it. Tony also went out of his way to tell us that Anna is one of the top-ranked women in the company. Okay… if there is a ranking system in place, why is there an open challenge at all instead of the top-ranked wrestler just being given the shot?
Now Sterling is saying that Jade is happy to “accept this challenge.” Wasn’t Jade the one making the challenge?
Anyway, Sterling said heel things. Then, for some unknown reason, John Silver got to talk. He transferred is clown routine to Anna Jay, which completely took the edge off of Anna trying to do her “I’m tough!” promo. Then Jade just said her catchphrase. I remember her being a pretty good talker. Why has she been reduced to this bullsh*t?

I’m halfway through the show, and already at almost ten full pages in Word. This is feeling like one of those old Impact or Smackdown reviews.

THE KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (Aleister Black & Brody King) vs. THE VARSITY BLONDS (w/Julia Hart)- no rating, horrible segment
Yup. Their tag team name is the random name that Excalibur blurted out on last week’s show, despite supposedly being surprised that they were even aligned together. “Detail guy” Tony Khan strikes again.
Apparently the Varsity Blonds spent twenty-two weeks- ALMOST HALF OF THE YEAR- in the Top Five last year, and yet never got a title shot. They were in one big #1 contendership battle royale, and in one #1 contendership tournament, and that was it. These rankings NEED TO GO. Literally all they do is create plot-holes.
After tripping last week and getting kicked in the face for the lost, Brian Pillman Jr. now won’t go for his finisher. After screwing up ONCE. This cartoonishness was compounded by Pillman’s cartoonish body language. He just looks like he belongs in the WWF in 1992.
The heels pretty much squashed the babyfaces. They looked SOOOO pathetic here. This felt like a turning point where I just can’t take these guys seriously as anything other than an undercard act.
Black wanted to talk, but a Pac video played instead. He said stuff. He can see now. Excalibur said that Black had injured him due to the mist, but that completely ignores the big angle they did after the second misting when Black TRIED TO GOUGE PAC’S EYE OUT, AND MANAGED TO DRAW BLOOD. Misses like that by the announcers (or, possibly even worse, directives from management to flush things down the memory hole) are becoming far too frequent in AEW.

LANCE ARCHER VS. JAKE ROBERTS VIDEO PACKAGE- mostly awesome
Jake Roberts did a voice-over for this, and they had a shot of Jake cutting the promo, standing right next to both Archer and Lambert.
Page is getting awfully defensive about people calling him a “fake cowboy.” He asks whether or not we thought Bob Orton spent eight days on the road and then came home to herd cattle. First of all, you might be on the road for eight days, Page, but you’re not working all of those days. I’ll bet you Cowboy Bob did. Second of all… if it’s his gimmick, then YES. When Tommy Dreamer needed help from Terry Funk, he had the operator connect him to the Double-Cross Ranch, because that’s where Terry lived. Was Terry Funk out herding cattle from 94-98 between IWA Japan tours and weekends working for ECW or WWC? Probably not. But he and the promotions he was working for made sure that they didn’t go out of their way to make me think he wasn’t, either.
I know this might seem contradictory to what I said last week when I said “I don’t think anyone really cares about whether or not Page is a real cowboy,” but Page has now entered the realm of “thou doth protest too much.” His answer last week about growing up on a farm and spoken in a way that sure sounded authentic to my northeastern suburban kid/urban adult ears was fine. Once you start saying “Oh yeah… well Bob Orton didn’t go take care of the cattle of he got back from the road, either,” you sound like your making excuses for why you don’t meet some basic standard of being a cowboy (dealing with the cows).
And yeah, other than that bit, this was awesome. Awesome enough that I’m wondering what the hell Lambert is even doing with Archer when he has a clearly capable Jake “The Snake” Roberts.

BRANDON CUTLER IS SUPPOSED TO BE SHOOTING A PROMO WITH THE YOUNG BUCKS, BUT THEY’RE NOT THERE, BUT ROPPONGI VICE JUST HAPPENED TO BE WALKING BY- meh
Rocky was an asshole, but Trent told him off for being mean to Cutler.
They note that they beat the Bucks a few times, many years ago, so they think they can “reunite” “for one last time” and beat the Bucks, so they issue a challenge for Rampage. They conveniently forgot all of the times that the Bucks beat them, which is a lot more times than they beat the Bucks, including four of the last five times they wrestled. Throw in the fact that the Bucks have been teaming together regularly and they haven’t, and they came off as delusional. And, of course, they had to have Rocky be an asshole to Cutler at the end, too, because nothing makes me want to see someone succeed more than them being a total asshole to a random scrub for no reason.

FRANKIE KAZARIAN vs. LANCE ARCHER (w/Dan Lambert)- 5.75/10
If you want to know just how little the records mean in AEW, I (and I imagine everyone else not named Tony Khan) was shocked to find out that the person with the second-most wins in AEW is Frankie Kazarian. Really.
Both Lambert and Jake came out with Archer, but Jake headed to the back. If Lambert is going to be managing Archer now, it was nice to see Jake give it his blessing.
Archer dominated most of the match and won clean.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Tony Schiavone headed to the ring to find out why Archer and Lambert are now working together. Lambert cut his usual promo until Archer snatched the mic away. He said “enough of this cowboy bullsh*t. I’m going to show you what I’m going to do.” He then picked up a chair that was already in the ring and tossed it to the outside. Then he tossed Kaz to the outside. He then went to chokeslam Kaz on the chair. If you wanted to chokeslam the guy onto a chair, why not just do it in the ring?
Ah. Because this way Adam Page can come out to make the save. This is the sort of thing that makes the show feel more fake. You didn’t need the chair at all, and taking the guy out of the ring to do a chokeslam on the ramp makes a lot more sense than taking him and the chair out of the ring to do a chokeslam onto a chair on the ramp.
You’d think Page would have just charged out at the man who assaulted him last week, but no. We get the purposeful stride and then the big stare-down with Page holding the belt up before Page slaps Archer. He assaulted you with a chair last week! You should just charge out and start punching him, not try to milk the moment or intimidate him first!
They did some stuff and Page won the brawl, but it felt like they were going out of their way to set things up so that Page could win while Archer never had to leave his feet, even when taking a shot to the head with the title belt. It just felt a little too forced to me, so instead of seeing Page win the brawl, I saw the booker coming up with a way to protect Archer while giving Page the win. It’s the sort of thing that probably wouldn’t leap out to me like this if there weren’t so many times on the show where it felt like a booker directing a story or wrestlers working together to tell a story instead of feeling like a shoot.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS DANTE MARTIN, MATT SYDAL, & LEE MORIARTY- meh
Apparently Dante recently saved these two from an attack by Team Taz. I have no memory of this. Dante said that Sydal has been like a brother to him while his real brother has been out injured. Moriarty said that as long as Dante has their backs, they’ll have his.
If Sydal has been like a brother to Dante, why did Dante leave him for Lio Rush? And what happened to Lio Rush, anyway? He seems to have completely disappeared.

TEAM TAZ PROMO- good
This was just Ricky Starks and Will Hobbs, and both were good. Starks said that no one likes Dante, and Hobbs said that Dante would need someone not just to watch his back, but also his front and both sides. He sounder cooler and more dangerous than I’m making it seem here.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH RED VELVET AND KRIS STATLANDER IS INTERRUPTED BY LEYLA HIRSCH- bad
Statlander is still selling from earlier. Leyla came up and said that Statlander should have been this focused on their match on Rampage. She said that Statlander losing had cost both herself and Red Velvet “thousands of dollars.” Despite the fact that she was yelling at Statlander, she was looking right at Schiavone, which was weird.
Red Velvet tried to talk Leyla down, but turned her back on her and got forearmed in the back of the head. That looked pretty brutal. Statlander shoved Leyla and asked her what her problem was… and then promptly turned her back on Leyla Hirsch mere moments after Leyla had thrown a sucker-forearm at the back of the head of someone she was less angry at than Statlander. What a dumbass!
You don’t get any points for guessing what happened.
Leyla locked Statlander in an armbar and had to be pulled off by referees.

SKY BLUE vs. SERENA DEEB- squash
Deeb squashed the jobber, then left the hold in afterwards.

MEN OF THE YEAR PROMO- great
Ethan Page wants a match against Jon Moxley. That should be awesome. Ethan Page talks the wins he has gotten since Moxley left, but I’m pretty sure that all of the wins he was talking about took place while Moxley was still around. I don’t remember seeing him win on TV at all in a long time.
Other than that, though, this was great.
The person who does MOTY’s promo cuts to black as soon as Scorpio Sky snaps his fingers. Why don’t the Bucks just hire him/her to film their promos and just keep Cutler on as a stooge for other tasks?

HOOK VIDEO PACKAGE- whatever
He’s over because fans decided to make cheering him a thing, but he’s way too green to do much with, so AEW is actually in a pretty bad place with him that they’re making the most of.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS MATT HARDY AND ANDRADE EL IDOLO- snore
Matt has decided to sell 51% of his group to Andrade, but Matt will still maintain a majority of seats of the “board of directors,” which they apparently have. Those three seats will be Matt and Private Party, with Andrade and Jose taking the other two. I assume Private Party will turn on Matt at some point and give Andrade full control, but I really don’t see how anyone is supposed to care about any of this. Andrade has become a total non-factor, and he has now been linked up with an undercard group. This feels like it’s just pulling Andrade down even more. This new undercard faction will now be known as the AHFO.

THE ACCLAIMED vs. DARBY ALLIN & STING- 6.75/10
The Acclaimed jumped the bell on Sting and Darby, except unlike what usually happens in these situations, this didn’t trigger the bell. The reason for that is because they needed to do a spot where the Acclaimed used a chair on Darby, and so to make sure their planned spot didn’t break any rules… they broke a rule of how things normally work in AEW. This f*cking company…
Anyway, they wrapped a chair around Darby’s neck and ran him across the apron into the post, and he went flying. It looked like it killed him, and they had a doctor rush to ringside just to double-check that it actually didn’t. They took Darby away, forcing Sting to wrestle alone. They handled this part very well, giving Sting some good shine, getting some good heat on him, and setting up a great spot for him to come back and make the save in a very Darby Allin fashion.
Sting and Darby got the clean win. There is just something about this pairing that is so enjoyable to watch in the ring. Being Darby’s partner just seems to bring something out of Sting.


Another TERRIBLE show from AEW. I’m quickly losing all hope that anyone in power in this promotion can see the glaringly obvious flaws in their storytelling and general presentation. Just to close on a positive note, though, I thought this show was the best that both Ross and Schiavone have done.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by cero2k » Jan 20th, '22, 21:32

Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 20:24 THE KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (Aleister Black & Brody King) vs. THE VARSITY BLONDS (w/Julia Hart)- no rating, horrible segment
Yup. Their tag team name is the random name that Excalibur blurted out on last week’s show, despite supposedly being surprised that they were even aligned together. “Detail guy” Tony Khan strikes again.

There was soo much that I was gonna pick on, but it's seriously too much to get dragged into it.

It wasn't a 'random name', they've been the Kings of the Black Throne for months, and the only 'surprised' reaction was to King showing on AEW. I don't see the lack of details.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 20th, '22, 22:16

cero2k wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 21:32
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 20:24 THE KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (Aleister Black & Brody King) vs. THE VARSITY BLONDS (w/Julia Hart)- no rating, horrible segment
Yup. Their tag team name is the random name that Excalibur blurted out on last week’s show, despite supposedly being surprised that they were even aligned together. “Detail guy” Tony Khan strikes again.

There was soo much that I was gonna pick on, but it's seriously too much to get dragged into it.

It wasn't a 'random name', they've been the Kings of the Black Throne for months, and the only 'surprised' reaction was to King showing on AEW. I don't see the lack of details.
Where have they been that? Every search result for it on Google has been from the past week.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 20th, '22, 22:18

cero2k wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 21:32
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 20:24 THE KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (Aleister Black & Brody King) vs. THE VARSITY BLONDS (w/Julia Hart)- no rating, horrible segment
Yup. Their tag team name is the random name that Excalibur blurted out on last week’s show, despite supposedly being surprised that they were even aligned together. “Detail guy” Tony Khan strikes again.

There was soo much that I was gonna pick on, but it's seriously too much to get dragged into it.

Please do. If I made a factual error or forgot something in a storyline, I'd like to know about it so I don't make the mistake again. I really badly want to understand what's going on. Nothing would make me happier than for these stories to actually make sense and for me to be wrong.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by cero2k » Jan 21st, '22, 10:47

Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 22:18
Please do. If I made a factual error or forgot something in a storyline, I'd like to know about it so I don't make the mistake again. I really badly want to understand what's going on. Nothing would make me happier than for these stories to actually make sense and for me to be wrong.
They're the PWG tag champs as the KOTBT since September. In AEW, there was that vignette where Black turned someone with his mist and welcomed him to the House of Black, he straight up said "now you're more than a King". Details are there, but we gotta connect the dots.



As for the the Varsity Blondes, they have been showing that the team is falling apart since Julia got hit by the Mist (which everyone predicts that it's a matter of time before she joins the HoB). Pillman's wrestling has always been cartoony, he'd be fantastic in Arena Mexico, but right now they've been kinda telling the story that his confidence is on the floor after that match were he failed to hit the springboard and Black just kicked his head off.

You're not making errors, but the details you say they lack, a lot of them are there, Bryan and Vinny always manage to point them out, and they're not exactly indie connoisseurs
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 21st, '22, 11:57

cero2k wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 10:47
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 20th, '22, 22:18
Please do. If I made a factual error or forgot something in a storyline, I'd like to know about it so I don't make the mistake again. I really badly want to understand what's going on. Nothing would make me happier than for these stories to actually make sense and for me to be wrong.
They're the PWG tag champs as the KOTBT since September. In AEW, there was that vignette where Black turned someone with his mist and welcomed him to the House of Black, he straight up said "now you're more than a King". Details are there, but we gotta connect the dots.




I checked Cagematch. The only place they appear to be using that name is PWG, where they have only used it twice. And...well... it's a PWG name. Those don't get used anywhere else 80% of the time.

I remembered the segment above and the line you referenced, and I read the complete opposite way. "Now you're more than a king" sounds to me like a hint that he was getting a new name and they were providing a kayfabe explanation for why (his cult leader said so). Telling someone that they're "more than a king" and then sticking them in a team you call the "kings" is very incongruent.
cero2k wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 10:47 As for the the Varsity Blondes, they have been showing that the team is falling apart since Julia got hit by the Mist (which everyone predicts that it's a matter of time before she joins the HoB). Pillman's wrestling has always been cartoony, he'd be fantastic in Arena Mexico, but right now they've been kinda telling the story that his confidence is on the floor after that match were he failed to hit the springboard and Black just kicked his head off.

You're not making errors, but the details you say they lack, a lot of them are there, Bryan and Vinny always manage to point them out, and they're not exactly indie connoisseurs
I understand that the team has been falling apart. My issue is not with that. My issue is with Pillman Jr. losing all confidence in his finisher after it going wrong ONCE.

Bryan and Vinny miss a lot of sh*t, and I'm sure they're also pooling with Dave (by which I mean Bryan does a show with Dave the night of the show and just remembers things).
I also wouldn't be shocked if Dave wasn't getting details sent to him. I don't say that in a "Dave's in the tank for AEW" way, but just in a way that it if I was a booker of a show that I knew someone like Wade, Bryan, or Dave would be covering, I would be sending them my at least medium-term plans about anything I thought might look odd on the surface so that they could would at least assure people that "there is a reason behind it," and I can't imagine I'm the only person this sort of thing would occur to (especially just knowing how much contact these guys have been in with Vince at times, and how much contact Wade and Tony seem to be in).
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by cero2k » Jan 23rd, '22, 22:08

Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 11:57
I checked Cagematch. The only place they appear to be using that name is PWG, where they have only used it twice. And...well... it's a PWG name. Those don't get used anywhere else 80% of the time.

I remembered the segment above and the line you referenced, and I read the complete opposite way. "Now you're more than a king" sounds to me like a hint that he was getting a new name and they were providing a kayfabe explanation for why (his cult leader said so). Telling someone that they're "more than a king" and then sticking them in a team you call the "kings" is very incongruent.
Sure, but it's still not a random name, nor is PWG a run of the mill unknown indie. People knew he was coming and they knew they were together.
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 11:57 I understand that the team has been falling apart. My issue is not with that. My issue is with Pillman Jr. losing all confidence in his finisher after it going wrong ONCE.

Bryan and Vinny miss a lot of sh*t, and I'm sure they're also pooling with Dave (by which I mean Bryan does a show with Dave the night of the show and just remembers things).
I also wouldn't be shocked if Dave wasn't getting details sent to him. I don't say that in a "Dave's in the tank for AEW" way, but just in a way that it if I was a booker of a show that I knew someone like Wade, Bryan, or Dave would be covering, I would be sending them my at least medium-term plans about anything I thought might look odd on the surface so that they could would at least assure people that "there is a reason behind it," and I can't imagine I'm the only person this sort of thing would occur to (especially just knowing how much contact these guys have been in with Vince at times, and how much contact Wade and Tony seem to be in).
Yeah, but it's doing the finisher wrong, on top of Julia getting hurt, Garrison almost turning on him, things aren't going well for Pillman. Plus, the one time he fucked it, it cost him, it wasn't just a mistake. It's ok.

Tony doesn't strike me like the type of person that sends anyone his 'plans', and I would agree with that, I personally wouldn't want to send those things out, I rather listen to their criticism and see what kinks to work out. Not to mention to keep spoilers from getting out.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 24th, '22, 01:04

cero2k wrote: Jan 23rd, '22, 22:08
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 11:57
I checked Cagematch. The only place they appear to be using that name is PWG, where they have only used it twice. And...well... it's a PWG name. Those don't get used anywhere else 80% of the time.

I remembered the segment above and the line you referenced, and I read the complete opposite way. "Now you're more than a king" sounds to me like a hint that he was getting a new name and they were providing a kayfabe explanation for why (his cult leader said so). Telling someone that they're "more than a king" and then sticking them in a team you call the "kings" is very incongruent.
Sure, but it's still not a random name, nor is PWG a run of the mill unknown indie. People knew he was coming and they knew they were together.
"People knew he was coming in" is not a kayfabe statement. When he showed up, the announcers were all surprised. If they didn't know he was coming in, they certainly didn't know they were coming in together. Even we as kayfabe viewers (and this is how the announcers would have to look at it, too) didn't know he was coming in. For all we knew, in that video Malakai could have been talking to Kenny King or BSHP King, or anyone else named "King." Hell, maybe he was talking to King Fale.

The fact that they used the name in PWG means I will withdraw my criticism, but I still think it's best to wait for week 2 to use a team name if the guys don't come in wearing t-shirts.

Have they been referring to Kyle and Bobby as reDragon?

cero2k wrote: Jan 23rd, '22, 22:08
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 21st, '22, 11:57 I understand that the team has been falling apart. My issue is not with that. My issue is with Pillman Jr. losing all confidence in his finisher after it going wrong ONCE.

Bryan and Vinny miss a lot of sh*t, and I'm sure they're also pooling with Dave (by which I mean Bryan does a show with Dave the night of the show and just remembers things).
I also wouldn't be shocked if Dave wasn't getting details sent to him. I don't say that in a "Dave's in the tank for AEW" way, but just in a way that it if I was a booker of a show that I knew someone like Wade, Bryan, or Dave would be covering, I would be sending them my at least medium-term plans about anything I thought might look odd on the surface so that they could would at least assure people that "there is a reason behind it," and I can't imagine I'm the only person this sort of thing would occur to (especially just knowing how much contact these guys have been in with Vince at times, and how much contact Wade and Tony seem to be in).
Yeah, but it's doing the finisher wrong, on top of Julia getting hurt, Garrison almost turning on him, things aren't going well for Pillman. Plus, the one time he fucked it, it cost him, it wasn't just a mistake. It's ok.
He slipped once. It's too overdramatic. Things haven't been going well a bit, yeah, but to give up on your finisher because you slipped once and got into one argument with your tag team partner? It came off as overdramatic and hokey, especially when we see people have disagreements with partners or a friend get hurt and also have their finisher reversed in the same week and never have a issue with it. Giving up on your finisher is the sort of thing that has to be built up over weeks.

cero2k wrote: Jan 23rd, '22, 22:08 Tony doesn't strike me like the type of person that sends anyone his 'plans', and I would agree with that, I personally wouldn't want to send those things out, I rather listen to their criticism and see what kinks to work out. Not to mention to keep spoilers from getting out.
Spoilers getting out shouldn't be an issue. Dave and Wade both have degrees in journalism and I'm sure Bryan understands what "off the record" means.

I'm saying that if they criticize something but it's an invalid criticism and everything will make sense when they see where the story is going, I'd rather Dave and Wade or whoever be able to tell their audience "this will make sense in the end" rather than rely on them to remember what they said two weeks ago and then say "oh. That's where this thing was going. I guess I was wrong" two weeks later when the thing makes sense.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by cero2k » Jan 25th, '22, 11:56

Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
"People knew he was coming in" is not a kayfabe statement. When he showed up, the announcers were all surprised. If they didn't know he was coming in, they certainly didn't know they were coming in together. Even we as kayfabe viewers (and this is how the announcers would have to look at it, too) didn't know he was coming in. For all we knew, in that video Malakai could have been talking to Kenny King or BSHP King, or anyone else named "King." Hell, maybe he was talking to King Fale.

The fact that they used the name in PWG means I will withdraw my criticism, but I still think it's best to wait for week 2 to use a team name if the guys don't come in wearing t-shirts.
The surprise is for the debut, regardless whether they knew or not, they didn't know when he was coming and a man appearing out of nothing should most definitely be surprising. But while you're right, they didn't know exactly who it was, neither did we for that matter, we do have a a good idea of who it would be, and that IS kayfabe.
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04 Have they been referring to Kyle and Bobby as reDragon?
Kinda, KOR only has had one match in AEW, and he and Fish came out to the reDragon theme with the reDragon tron, but since it was a trios match with Cole, they all go introduced by their name alone. New Years Smash if you wanna look it up.

Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
He slipped once. It's too overdramatic. Things haven't been going well a bit, yeah, but to give up on your finisher because you slipped once and got into one argument with your tag team partner? It came off as overdramatic and hokey, especially when we see people have disagreements with partners or a friend get hurt and also have their finisher reversed in the same week and never have a issue with it. Giving up on your finisher is the sort of thing that has to be built up over weeks.
It can be overdramatic, but it's not necessarily contradicting anything that I've seen. Not everyone in the promotion is overdramatic, so i'm ok with a couple. Especially two guys that part of their gimmick is that they're still young and hot headed.
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
Spoilers getting out shouldn't be an issue. Dave and Wade both have degrees in journalism and I'm sure Bryan understands what "off the record" means.

I'm saying that if they criticize something but it's an invalid criticism and everything will make sense when they see where the story is going, I'd rather Dave and Wade or whoever be able to tell their audience "this will make sense in the end" rather than rely on them to remember what they said two weeks ago and then say "oh. That's where this thing was going. I guess I was wrong" two weeks later when the thing makes sense.
Sure, Dave, Wade, and Bryan. What about Sean Ross that just spoiled Ronda's return because he puts news behind a paywall? The Bodyslam.net guy that was all crazy about taking credit for Dragon signing with AEW? If AEW starts selecting who gets info over others then they WILL have a credible argument for 'being in the payroll', and realistically, Fightful right now is the #2 wrestling news site.

it's a can of worms that promoters should be careful to open if they're crazy about spoilers.
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Re: BRM Reviews the 1/19/2022 Dynamite (TERRIBLE. AGAIN).

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 25th, '22, 14:51

cero2k wrote: Jan 25th, '22, 11:56
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
"People knew he was coming in" is not a kayfabe statement. When he showed up, the announcers were all surprised. If they didn't know he was coming in, they certainly didn't know they were coming in together. Even we as kayfabe viewers (and this is how the announcers would have to look at it, too) didn't know he was coming in. For all we knew, in that video Malakai could have been talking to Kenny King or BSHP King, or anyone else named "King." Hell, maybe he was talking to King Fale.

The fact that they used the name in PWG means I will withdraw my criticism, but I still think it's best to wait for week 2 to use a team name if the guys don't come in wearing t-shirts.
The surprise is for the debut, regardless whether they knew or not, they didn't know when he was coming and a man appearing out of nothing should most definitely be surprising. But while you're right, they didn't know exactly who it was, neither did we for that matter, we do have a a good idea of who it would be, and that IS kayfabe.
At this point in AEW, someone appearing out of nowhere isn't a surprise anymore. I expect it at least once every two weeks. They've overdone it to death.
cero2k wrote: Jan 25th, '22, 11:56
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04 Have they been referring to Kyle and Bobby as reDragon?
Kinda, KOR only has had one match in AEW, and he and Fish came out to the reDragon theme with the reDragon tron, but since it was a trios match with Cole, they all go introduced by their name alone. New Years Smash if you wanna look it up.
Excalibur said it on Rampage this week, but it's a little surprising it hasn't been used before, as ROH hasn't been protective of copyrights (if they ever had one) and they got the rights to the song.

cero2k wrote: Jan 25th, '22, 11:56
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
He slipped once. It's too overdramatic. Things haven't been going well a bit, yeah, but to give up on your finisher because you slipped once and got into one argument with your tag team partner? It came off as overdramatic and hokey, especially when we see people have disagreements with partners or a friend get hurt and also have their finisher reversed in the same week and never have a issue with it. Giving up on your finisher is the sort of thing that has to be built up over weeks.
It can be overdramatic, but it's not necessarily contradicting anything that I've seen. Not everyone in the promotion is overdramatic, so i'm ok with a couple. Especially two guys that part of their gimmick is that they're still young and hot headed.
It contradicts years of how we've seen pro wrestling work (and a lot of general human behavior). If a basketball player who is good at shooting threes misses one, he's not going to hesitate before shooting his next three, even if that miss caused his team to lose the game. How many wrestlers (even just young wrestlers) have their finisher countered and never have a second thought about using it?

The other part of the issue is that the whole scenario feels contrived. This was only the second instance of the team having trouble getting along. This one resulted from the contrived scenario of "Pillman screws up his finisher ONCE and is now reluctant to do it." The first one was them arguing in the interview after Black misted Julia, which also felt contrived, as Garrison was cutting a fiery promo vowing revenge and Pillman was telling him to calm down because Black wants them to get upset... which Pillman has no way of knowing (and Black hasn't hinted at at any point since, either)... and that segment was a result of Black misting Julia, which he did because.. um... It's been almost seven weeks, and we haven't even had a hint of a reason. And as a result, the whole thing doesn't feel like it's been driven by the characters' actions and motivations, but rather it feels like everything is happening because the booker wants to do an angle where there is dissension and maybe they break up. Compare this to the stuff with Cole and the Bucks going on right now.


cero2k wrote: Jan 25th, '22, 11:56
Big Red Machine wrote: Jan 24th, '22, 01:04
Spoilers getting out shouldn't be an issue. Dave and Wade both have degrees in journalism and I'm sure Bryan understands what "off the record" means.

I'm saying that if they criticize something but it's an invalid criticism and everything will make sense when they see where the story is going, I'd rather Dave and Wade or whoever be able to tell their audience "this will make sense in the end" rather than rely on them to remember what they said two weeks ago and then say "oh. That's where this thing was going. I guess I was wrong" two weeks later when the thing makes sense.
Sure, Dave, Wade, and Bryan. What about Sean Ross that just spoiled Ronda's return because he puts news behind a paywall? The Bodyslam.net guy that was all crazy about taking credit for Dragon signing with AEW? If AEW starts selecting who gets info over others then they WILL have a credible argument for 'being in the payroll', and realistically, Fightful right now is the #2 wrestling news site.

it's a can of worms that promoters should be careful to open if they're crazy about spoilers.
If no one told Sapp "don't print this," he did nothing wrong.

I'm not saying that Dave/Bryan/Wade whoever wouldn't criticize AEW if they got spoilers. I'm saying that they would say "I was told there is a reason for this," and if said reason doesn't make sense in the end, they would say so when the payoff airs. Or, hell, say it right there. "They do have a specific reason for doing this, but I don't think it makes sense."

Dave winds up knowing WWE plans all the time, and no one has accused him of being on their payroll. I don't think it would be an issue.
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