BRM Reviews the 11/30/2022 Dynamite (decent wrestling suffocated by a lot of frustrating crap)

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews the 11/30/2022 Dynamite (decent wrestling suffocated by a lot of frustrating crap)

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 1st, '22, 20:17

OPENING SEGMENT- bad
Jon Moxley came out, and his graphic told us that he was seeking revenge on MJF for screwing him out of the world title at Full Gear. Then Moxley proceeded to cut a standard “I’m the best, and no one is brave enough to disagree” promo, not mentioning in MJF, the world title, or William Regal at all.
When Moxley hit the appropriate line, Adam Page made his big surprise return. Excalibur said that Page was in Indianapolis to consult with doctors about getting cleared, but, to his knowledge, was not yet cleared. Moxley was a dick to Page for no reason, so Page punched him.
They brawled until security came out to break them up, then they brawled some more. Moxley fell off the ramp trying to get at Page. Security was eventually able to separate them and get them each into a different entrance tunnel.
I thought this whole thing was bad, simply because Moxley was an asshole for no reason (again). If you want me to feel bad for this guy for getting screwed out of the title want to see him get revenge, don’t have him be an asshole. It’s not that hard. And if you’re answer is that he’s so on edge and scrapping for a fight that he made fun of Page’s concussion for the sake of starting a fight, I will respond by asking you why, if he is so angry that he wants to fight someone, is he not going around backstage and trying to start a fight with the person who stole the world title from him?

DAX HARWOOD vs. BRYAN DANIELSON- 7.75/10
Tony Schiavone said that Bryan Danielson loves William Regal for “what William Regal has meant to his career,” so I guess he wasn’t paying any attention last week. That’s definitely what you want in an announcer.
They spent about three hours on the outside without getting counted out. Then Dax got back into the ring… and all of a sudden, the referee started to count Dragon out. These are two guys who I really expected better from. There was also a point where Dax was sitting on the top rope while Danielson had him tied up and was hitting the MMA Elbows. Shouldn’t the referee have applied a five-count?
Other than those two spots, this was really great, but those two spots annoyed me. Especially the count-out bullsh*t, because there was absolutely no need for it. No one thinks you’re having a better match because you do a count-out tease where you have to ignore the count-out rules just to set it up.
As you would expect, Danielson won cleanly. It’s gotten to the point with Dax where booking him in these singles matches feels silly.
They did some stupid sh*t after the match where Dax ignored Dragon’s offer of a handshake, only to turn around when he got to the ropes and go hug Dragon. Why not have him yell “PSYCHE!” when he turned back around. Taz saying “hah. That was funny” only served to make him look like an idiot, too.


I saw Athena’s name on the Dark results, so apparently her obviously insincere apology was enough to get her unsuspended. This company keeps coming up with new ways to make their management look incompetent.


They announced that they’re doing the Diamond Ring Battle Royale again this year… except that instead of working like it has all three years they previously did it, where the ring was vacated and they had a battle royale down to two and those two met in a singles match to determine who got the ring, this year it’s a battle royale down to one winner to determine who gets to challenge MJF for the ring. Also, the winner will get to pick when he challenges MJF, because I guess that’s the kick Tony is currently on.
Tony Schiavone would later explain the change in the rules as being “because MJF is the world champion.” Why should that matter? They didn’t change the rules for the World Cup just because Brazil are the reigning Olympic Gold Medalists.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS RICKY STARKS- bad
Starks said that he would win the world title from MJF… and also entered himself into the battle royale for the Dynamite Diamond Ring, because he wants to take that from MJF, too. He says he wants to take everything MJF has because he deserves it, too. He came off like an entitled heel here.

JON MOXLEY AND ADAM PAGE ARE STILL TRYING TO FIGHT BACKSTAGE- dudes… calm the f*ck down. It’s been twenty minutes. This is just silly at this point.
This time, the announcers are insistent that we need to throw these two out of the building lest they disrupt the whole show. It was quickly confirmed to Schiavone that this was the case.
I had suspected that this would happen when they first brawled, because it creates a reason why Moxley doesn’t come out and attack MJF during his speech, while also allowing them to build to a Page vs. Moxley rematch. This fails for me because its foundation is a contrivance. People brawl backstage all the time in AEW and don’t get kicked out of the arena. The “they’re still brawling from before. They’re liable to disrupt the show!” thing should fix this, but it fails because them being at that point feels like a contrivance. These guys had no quarrel with each other, then Moxley says one dickish thing and they can’t resist fighting each other even after being separated for twenty minutes?
And, as an aside, if you really want me to believe that these two need to be removed from the building because they’re brawling might disrupt the show, how about you show that actually happening? Instead of going to the entrances for Dragon vs. Dax right after their opening brawl, why not put a nothing match out there, and about thirty seconds in, you have them come back out, brawling, and disrupt the match? Or cut the lights, or shoot off some pyro or something like that, and then say that these two brawling caused the issue because they bumped into the generator or bumped into the pyro control board or something like that?



RENEE PAQUETTE DOES A SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH SOME MEMBERS OF THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB AND SOME MEMBERS OF THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY- terrible… but I was laughing my ass off by the end of it.
The JAS was represented by Jake Hager, Daniel Garcia, and 2.0. The BCC were represented by Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler YUTA. This was being broadcast live from AEW’s “sound stage” in Nashville instead of at the arena because… um…
The JAS were annoying. Renee asked Claudio what winning the ROH World Title would mean to him. The JAS continued to be annoying, so Claudio started yelling and left. Then the JAS said they wanted a tag match next week, and it was YUTA’s turn to get overdramatic. He says that he will do the “stupid tag match” because he wants the Pure Title back. He lost it almost three months ago, and this is the first time he has indicated that he wants it back. Since losing the title, he has won a grand total of zero singles matches, but in Tony Khan’s mind, you don’t need to win matches so long as you cut a “fiery” promo the week before the match. In YUTA’s case he said that wanted the Pure Title back is the only reason Garcia isn’t “dead to me.”
Once Garcia stormed off, I started laughing my ass off and couldn’t stop, because of both the kayfabe and meta ridiculousness of the situation. Let’s start with kayfabe:
Tony Khan wanted to build up the Jericho vs. Claudio ROH World Title match… and so he took not just Claudio, but also Claudio’s pal Wheeler YUTA, and he flew them not to the arena where the show being broadcast from, but to sound stage (which looked more like a garage) in a completely different city almost three-hundred miles away. For the other side of the sit-down interview, he flew in an unequal number of guys from the other faction (so they will have a huge advantage if a fight breaks out) none of whom are the guy who is actually in the match that Tony is trying to hype!
And then, out of universe, from two of these guys who have no logical reason to be there, we get two matches booked, including a title match for the ROH PPV. Yeah, that sort of thing happens all the time in AEW, but at least everyone’s presence in the segment can be explained by “well, their friend was doing an interview, and they were right there when he got called to do it, so they figured they’d show their support” or something like that. In this case, for the reasons I explained above, YUTA and Garcia really, truly have no reason to be there other than because Tony Khan seems to have told them to be there… and they wind up booking two matches.


And for a more serious thought…
The Pure seems like exactly the sort of thing the JAS would think is stupid. In Daniel Garcia flat out said so in his promo building up to his first challenge for the title. Meanwhile, whatever TV deal ROH winds up getting, I can’t imagine that the roster will be big enough and/or they will have enough TV time to need two men’s secondary titles (especially if you actually want to give the women’s division an appropriate amount of time). If Jericho and his people are supposedly out to desecrate Ring of Honor or whatever, why not have Garcia just throw the belt in the trash?



AEW TNT TITLE MATCH: Samoa Joe(c) vs. A.R. Fox- 6.5/10
Per the internet, as of October 18, 2002, AEW had ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FORTY-TWO wrestlers under contract… and that didn’t include people who are actually under contract to ROH. And instead of using time to build someone up for a title shot, Tony Khan decided to remove all value from the concept of a title shot by signing a 143rd wrestler- who has already gotten a title shot and been defeated- a shot at another title.
I popped SOOO huge for the spot playing off of Joe’s usual spot where he cockily walks out of the way and the opponent crashes on a high-risk move. WONDERFUL!
Joe won cleanly. I guess the guy with no victories over credible opponents wasn’t much of a match for a champion, huh Tony?

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Joe declared himself to be the “king of television.” UCH.
Then Wardlow appeared on the TonyTron and said that “king of television” was almost as dumb as the last name Joe came up with, which was War-Joe. I’m sure the announcers who had to go out there and say the name like they thought it was cool were really happy to hear him say that. Wardlow said he was coming for the TNT Title.

WILL HOBBS VIDEO- snore
He said the same stuff he said last time. This time they showed his very presence scare some previously tough-talking gentlemen who appeared to be illegally gambling. And not like gambling on dog-fights or human fights or drag racing or anything like that. They were playing dice, like you’d hear some 19th-century preacher condemn.

HOOK VIDEO- Taz gave us an in-depth look at the technique Hook used to counter the Border City Stretch in his successful title defense against Lee Moriarty at Full Gear.

MJF PROMO- great execution, the jury is out on the booking
William Regal came out first and the fans booed him, but then cheered for MJF. I just don’t get how anyone can possibly have such a disconnect that they can boo Regal for turning on Moxley but then cheer the guy who Regal turned on Moxley to join.
Speaking of disconnects, Tony Schiavone is all indignant that MJF is a champion, but he had o such feelings about Jamie Hayter last week.
The mysterious e-mail that Regal mentioned sending MJF last week was sent after the Firm beat MJF up. Regal’s email said that MJF had become weak, but he still had potential to be “the greatest villain of our time,” so he was willing to become MJF’s mentor, but MJF must then use brass knuckles instead of using the Dynamite Diamond Ring.
My issue with this is that I don’t understand Regal’s motivation at all. What does Regal get out of teaching MJF how to be a legendary villain?
MJF said he had no problem with the Firm. He kind of respects them for seeing weakness and trying to take him out. He said that he won’t take revenge on them because “that takes effort… and effort is for poors.” That was a great line.
MJF insulted the fans. He also said he hates the title belt, so he got himself a fancier one made. Tony Schiavone claimed that MJF “has desecrated our title” by changing the design. Chill the f*ck out, Tony.
MJF ran down several wrestlers: Ricky Starks- who he has a title defense coming up against, Eddie Kingston, and Bryan Danielson. Moxley’s name not being mentioned was strange. I assume that’s because Moxley won’t be going after the title any time soon, as he will be busy feuding with Adam Page… which is absolutely not a reason for MJF not to mention his name when doing so would be logical, both because he’s the former champion and because he was just out here an hour ago talking about how he was the best.
MJF then managed to find a kayfabe way to explain to us that we are going to hate his title reign for non-kayfabe reasons. I thought the way he did that was clever, and that it was a smart direction to go in.
MJF concluded things by slipping behind Regal and hitting him in the back of the neck with the brass knuckles. Regal collapsed like he died, while the announcers put over Regal’s past injuries and the danger of the situation. Bryan Danielson and a bunch of paramedics came out to care for Regal. Execution-wise, they did a tremendous job with this.
In terms of the booking, if this is them writing Regal out for good, I’m fine with it, as it’s probably the way to do that with the most impact. And I really hope that’s what they’re doing here, because I don’t see how he can possibly come back as a babyface ever again after turning for the reasons (or lack thereof) that were laid out above. He’s just not trustworthy if he’ll screw people he has long-standing relationships with any time he thinks he can mentor the next great “villain.”

RICKY STARKS vs. ARI DAIVARI- no rating, good segment
Before the match, Ethan Page, Stokely Hathaway, and Matt Hardy came out. Matt ran in front of the other two and started doing the “DELETE!” chant so they ordered him to go the back. Page told Matt that because he owned Matt’s contract, Matt had to help him win the Dynamite Diamond Ring battle royale next week. Page cut a good promo on both Matt and Starks, and Matt’s mocking obedience followed by shooting Page the double-bird behind Page’s back on his way to the back was awesome (and props to the production team for not doing what WWE would have done and focusing on Matt at all. It was just a thing that happened in the background while Page continued cutting his promo, unaware of it).
I had actually forgotten that Matt had lost his and Private Party’s contracts to Ethan Page… so yeah. The same stipulation that they’re using for the ROH World Title match at Final Battle, they just used between two undercard groups a few weeks ago.
Page’s promo also served as a distraction so that Daivari could jump the bell on Starks. Unfortunately for Daivari, it didn’t help much, as Starks won clean with his finisher in twenty-four seconds.

In those twenty-four seconds, Excalibur managed to explain to us that MJF was getting a bye past the battle royale and straight into the match for the ring because “MJF is the only man to ever hold the Dynamite Diamond Ring.” As I’m sure you’ve noticed, that is not the same explanation that Tony Schiavone gave us a few minutes ago.
It also doesn’t make much sense, as MJF was also the only person to ever hold the ring going into both the 2020 and 2021 editions of this thing, and yet he still had to go through the battle royale both times.
AEW gave TWO DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS, AND NEITHER OF THEM MADE SENSE!
While putting over Starks and his upcoming title shot against MJF at Winter is Coming, Excalibur reminded us that MJF promised to not to wrestle unless it was a PPV… at which point I figured out why both the Eliminator tournament and the battle royale to challenge MJF for the Dynamite Diamond Ring randomly had these stipulations that the winner will get to choose the time and place of the match: it’s so that MJF can occasionally be “forced” to wrestle on free TV. A telltale sign of bad storytelling is if you keep having to come up with contrivances to get out of holes you dig yourself into.
And, yes, I realize that it mirrors MJF having been able to pick the time and place of his challenge via the poker-chip, but 1) just because there is some sort of artistic mirroring going on doesn’t make something good, and 2) a good storyteller would be able to create the mirroring without resorting to a contrivance.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS BRITT BAKER, JAMIE HAYTER, & REBEL- snore
Hayter and Britt are upset that Saraya is getting a “big sit-down interview” on Rampage and Hayter isn’t getting one, so they demand that Schiavone have a sit-down interview with them next week.

WILLOW NIGHTENGALE vs. ANNA JAY (w/Tay Conti)- 6/10
This got more time than I was expecting. I also wasn’t expecting Willow to win cleanly (or at all).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Willow left, then Ruby Soho’s music played. Anna Jay went to go look for her, while Tay stayed in the ring. Ruby came through the crowd and got into the ring behind Tay. She waited for Tay to turn around before attacking her, so at least someone in AEW still knows how a babyface should act. Ruby pounded on Tay, and knocked Anna Jay off the apron when she tried to interfere. I really wish they wouldn’t play someone’s music when that person is going to come in through the crowd (it doesn’t add anything, and it just makes management complicit in a potential sneak-attack), but other than that, this was good.


TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH Q.T. MARSHALL & ORANGE CASSIDY- snore
Q.T. wants a shot at the All-Atlantic Title on Rampage, and he wants it to be a Lumberjack match. OC agreed to both. We were supposed to laugh and people being dicks to Q.T., but

JADE CARGILL’S CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION- bad
Jade demands to know why the remaining Baddies were still hanging out with Kiera Hogan after Jade dismissed her from the group. She went on to talk about what a huge star she was. When she mentioned Little Bow-wow, he appeared on the TonyTron and said… something.

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED PROMO- F*CKING TERRIBLE
They were goofs. They said they were going to give someone a title shot on Rampage. Then we cut to Excalibur’s plug for Rampage, where he said that “we would her more from the Acclaimed” and didn’t mention this tag title match at all.


BEST OF SEVEN SERIES FOR THE AEW WORLD TRIOS TITLES MATCH #3: Death Triangle(c)(2) (w/Alex Abrahantes) vs. The Elite(0) (w/Brandon Cutler, Don Callis, & Michael Nakazawa)- 7.25/10
This time they started brawling on the ramp. Tony Schiavone said that Death Triangle cheating to win the first two matches was a “sound strategy.” To recap, in Tony’s book, if you use a baseball bat, it’s “systematic cheating” and using brass knuckles makes you a monster not worthy of being acknowledged as champion, but using a hammer is a “sound strategy” and winning due to outside interference means that you have “earned” the title. F*ck you.
Fenix has apparently decided he doesn’t want to cheat anymore. That was two spots early on. Then it was the same bunch of flips and kicks we’ve seen three times now. The Elite got the win.
Kenny Omega did his catchphrases after the match. The crowd mostly didn’t say them along with him.


More typical Dynamite. Mostly good wrestling with inexcusably bad storytelling in most cases, horribly shotty logic and detail-work, terrible comedy, and no sign of trying to improve because Uncle Dave keeps throwing snowflakes at the wrestling matches.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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