BRM Reviews the 10/28/2020 Dynamite (very bad)

[Big Red Machine]

The hype during the credits of the previous show said we were going to see quarterfinals in the #1 contendership tournament tonight instead of semifinals. It should not be hard to get that right. Does no one double-check things before they go out over the air?

DASHA INTERVIEWS WARDLOW & MJF- bad
She directed her question to Wardlow (about the #1 contendership tournament) but MJF jumped in to answer for him. MJF said that if Wardlow wins the tournament and then wins the title, MJF becomes the champion because Wardlow is under a personal contract to him rather than being under contract to AEW, and therefore “his property is my property.”
Um… no. That’s ridiculous, and we need to get clarification from AEW management at some point during this show (and preferably very early on) that such a thing is not the case. Alternatively, if that actually is in the contract that Wardlow signed with MJF, why did AEW put Wardlow in this tournament if the result of Wardlow winning the title would be someone else illegitimately becoming the world champion?

Anyway, Sammy Guevara showed up and he vowed to prevent MJF from ever joining the Inner Circle. MJF said all of these mean things to Sammy and it’s so clear that the idea here is to make us want to see Sammy finally snap and hit MJF… which makes it all the more baffling that they decided to keep this feud with Matt Hardy going by having Sammy be the guy who heinously assaulted Matt from behind and who we’re supposed to want to see Matt get revenge on for doing so at the PPV in ten days.

AEW WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Adam Page vs. Wardlow (w/MJF)- 7/10
This was mostly big spots, but worked, and was great for the less than ten minutes it got.

JON MOXLEY PROMO- This was a great promo, but I didn’t understand the purpose of intercutting it with shots of Eddie Kingston praying. It seemed very out of place.

EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO- meh
Excalibur once again told us that Eddie Kingston “convinced” The Bunny to rejoin The Butcher & The Blade and this time added the detail that she maxed out all of Q.T. Marshall’s credit cards first. Do they still not understand that they need to tell us HOW Kingston convinced her to rejoin the heels? Because at the moment, the answer appears to be that Kingston came up to her and said “how about you be evil again?” and she said “okay.” She’s a person. She needs to have some sort of motivation to turn!
Kingston mostly just rambled. He didn’t say anything we haven’t heard before, either. They decided it was necessary for him to make a snarky comment to Lance Archer (who was seated in the crowd) because I guess we need a THIRD heel vs. heel feud in this company.

MATT SYDAL vs. EDDIE KINGSTON (w/The Butcher, The Blade, & The Bunny)- 5.75/10
They did stuff. Kingston used Moxley’s chokehold to beat Sydal, but then wouldn’t release the hold after the match. He demanded that Sydal say he quit before he would release the hold.

JOINT INTERVIEW FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS WITH THE YOUNG BUCKS AND FTR-
Excalibur is conducting the interview in the same place as the Bucks, so I assume he’s getting kicked. Matt Jackson insisted that his ankle injury wouldn’t keep him out of this “match that has been brewing for years.” Excalibur then asked FTR why they would “jeopardize” this “dream match.” I think the answer to that is pretty f*cking obvious. I hate when promotions’ pretend that the wrestlers care about having “great matches.” They should care about winning (and if they are babyfaces, winning honorably.”
Excalibur then mentions to the Bucks that people have mentioned that Matt’s injury was comeuppance because the Bucks have been assholes lately (he phrased it more delicately than that). He flat-out asked them if they regret their recent actions… and they said no. They don’t regret anything because they have been “suffering” this year because they didn’t have any “edge.” What a pair of assholes! If you need to attack innocent people to motivate yourself to be tougher, that makes you a heel!
Apparently there is more on the line for them than just the titles because they’re adding a special stipulation to the match: If they don’t win the titles at Full Gear, they’ll never challenge for them again. Just like that, with no build and no f*cking reason for it.
Yes, I know Cody did that last year. That doesn’t make doing it this year artsy. It makes it stupid, because you have no reason for doing it other than artsiness, which is not something the characters on your show should be concerned with!

TOWN HALL ABOUT WHETHER MJF SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE INNER CIRCLE- terrible
Hey, look. More political parodies that are happening because there is an election. If the only reason you’re doing something on your wrestling show is to parody a current event, that’s a good sign you shouldn’t be doing it.
Jake Hager isn’t here because he’s got an MMA match coming up soon. You’re telling me that Swagger couldn’t take fifteen minutes off from training at 8:40 on a Wednesday night to be part of this important discussion? Of that they couldn’t postpone it until after his fight?
They’ve got other wrestlers coming up to ask questions. WHY? Do MJF or the Inner Circle really seem like the kind of people who give a sh*t what the rest of the locker room thinks?
Oh my G-d it’s getting worse. Luchasaurus is up first, and he wants to know how MJF will help the earning potential of the Inner Circle.
1. Should the answer to this be obvious to someone who claims to have a masters in economics? Adding another member to the group adds more matches for them to potentially win.
2. WHY DOES LUCHASAURUS GIVE A SH*T ABOUT THAT?!
And it manages to get even worse. MJF just so happens to have a chart that supposedly answers this, as if he knew the question was coming.
Next we got Rebel playing a Jericho fan-girl. Uch. What purpose did this serve? Then Britt Baker actually asked a logical question, which is why Jericho would trust MJF after MJF turned on his previous supposed best friend. Jericho’s answer was “I’m not a dipsh*t like Cody” and then said that if MJF turns on them, they’ll just kick his ass.
Peter Avalon, being a dork loser jobber, asks if he can join the Inner Circle, so they all laugh at him. Eric Bischoff showed up and asked questions that anyone with half a brain could figure out the answer to (questions like what MJF will bring to the Inner Circle and what he’d get out of being a member).
Bischoff then called Jericho a prima donna so Jericho interrupted him and complained, so Tony Schiavone could loudly tell Jericho to “SHUT UP!” because political parody, LOL. Bischoff asks what the odds are that if MJF joins the Inner Circle, he and Jericho will wind up being at each other’s throats all the time.
Jericho seems to have heard a completely different question than I did, as he demanded that MJF answer Bischoff’s question, which Jericho phrased as “how do we know that you won’t stab us in the back?” MJF responded that he has done lots of things for the Inner Circle, including giving Jericho “the best segment of your career” last week and asked “what haven’t I done?” Jericho responded that MJF has never beaten him, and challenged MJF to a match at Full Gear where if MJF wins, he will be allowed to join the Inner Circle. MJF said he would do “anything” to win. Ortiz then grabbed a microphone and cut an angry promo on MJF challenging him and Wardlow to a match against himself and Sammy Guevara next week, and saying that MJF wouldn’t even make it to the PPV.
This is SOOOOOO dumb! The idea of the Jericho match is clearly that it’s a test of MJF’s skill, but if they want to test his skill, why would Ortiz want to injure him first? If he’s really good enough to beat Jericho one-on-one then they should want him in the group, but it’s in their best interests to find that out fairly, otherwise there will be a guy running around who is actually capable of beating Jericho that they could have had in their group but didn’t because they stacked the deck against him by injuring him.

This whole segment and whole storyline have been moronic. They could have built up to Jericho vs. MJF in any number of ways but they chose to have them act like clowns for several weeks before all of a sudden dropping the clown act to be intense at each other. All of this bullsh*t with the jackets and the steak dinner and every single question here didn’t lead to sh*t! It was a waste of time. “If you beat me, you get to join the group because you’ll have proved your skill” could have been gotten to without making the principal acts involved into clowns and turning other wrestlers into goofball props for your stupid segment, but that’s what they do. For Full Gear they have booked TWO dream matches, and have managed to horribly botch the build to BOTH OF THEM! That’s WWE-level stupidity right there.

TAZ PROMO ON WILL HOBBS AND VIDEO PACKAGE- good
They’re still open to Will Hobbes joining them, despite what he has previously done to them because he’s such a good wrestler… but “the clock is ticking.”

LUMBERJACK MATCH FOR THE AEW TNT TITLE: Cody Rhodes(c) (w/the Nightmare Family) vs. Orange Cassidy (w/Best Friends)- 5.75/10
There’s Q.T. Marshall walking around like nothing’s wrong. It’s been eight days since his girlfriend turned on him and also apparently f*cked up his finances. No need for him to cut a promo on her or even do an interview letting us know how he’s feeling, I guess. Ditto for Brandi, who had become good friends with Allie before the betrayal.
I can let Best Friends catching OC and standing him back up on the apron go because it’s a Lumberjack match and they were technically doing their jobs. What I can’t let go is them catching Cody in the same position and then dropping him to the ground. That should be a DQ. It’s basically hitting Cody with a move. That had a full hold of him, and then they dropped him on purpose. That should be a DQ.
Then Best Friends began to full-on cheat, including punching Cody while the referee’s back was turned. Dustin Rhodes and Q.T. Marshall were standing RIGHT NEXT TO THEM when this happened, and they made no move to attack Best Friends for this. Two seconds later, Cody is up and in control of the match, so what was the point of having Best Friends act like heels and do this? What was gained by it? And aren’t Best Friends feuding with the video game dorks? Why are you having them be heels?
Some heels attacked OC on the outside so all of the Lumberjacks started brawling. Then they stopped and all turned to face the post so that Cody could superplex OC onto them. If your roster can’t make a big pile of people catching two guys not look phony, you shouldn’t be doing the spot.
Tony Schiavone told us that OC had been having some knee problems since his last match, so Cody worked that over. Unfortunately, OC forgot to sell it for 90% of the match. The good news is that Orange Cassidy did none of his Orange Cassidy bullsh*t. The finish saw John Silver run in and hit Orange Cassidy with a Pump Kick, which Cody didn’t see, so Cody took advantage of OC being down to hit the CrossRhodes and won, so now we’re going to be getting the Dork Order feuding with Best Friends. That seems like it will suck.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- why did this even happen?
All of the lumberjacks ran in and decided to fight each other. It ended with Gunn Club beating up some dude in a mask. Darby Allin was shown watching from the upper bowl of seats. So how long do we think it will be until Darby does a dive off of that? I’m betting it happens within a year.

KIP SABIAN & MIRO INTERRUPT A BEST FRIENDS INTERVIEW- meh
They claim to come in peace. Penelope Ford is dressed up as Orange Cassidy and gives them a package. Then the heels ask “trick or treat?” and attack the babyfaces. This would have been okay if they hadn’t just had Best Friends be heels for no reason in the TNT Title match.
Also, Kip Sabian has a new video game control set thingy.

SERENA DEEB PROMO- fine… but is she a babyface or a heel?

NWA WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Serena Deeb(c) vs. Leyla Hirsch- 4.75/10
Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad to see Leyla Hirsch getting a shot with AEW, but why the hell is she getting a title shot here? Her AEW record is 0-1. Surely there are more deserving women on the AEW roster. This problem could have easily been solved by just saying that the match was signed before Deeb won the belt and she wanted to defend it here on national TV, and the NWA board and AEW EVPs approved. That’s all you needed to say to eliminate a logic hole, give Deeb a little more character (now she would be a generic babyface, as opposed to the totally generic promo she cut before), and not once again countermand the idea that the records matter.
This was probably a better match than my rating reflects, but so much of it took place during the commercial and the split-screen (it’s not a picture-in-picture!) is hard for me to follow.
Ross told us that Serena Deeb was “nutritionally informed.”

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS HIKARU SHIDA- bad
Marvez’s tells Shida that “Nyla Rose has been the #1 contender for your AEW Women’s Title for months, yet she is now saying that she refuses to wrestle until you grant her a title match.” WHAT?!
1. Nyla has been the #1 contender “for months,” and yet this is the first I’m hearing of it.
2. Why should Shida have to be the one to grant Nyla a title match? Isn’t that the booker’s job?
3. No one should ever be the #1 contender “for months.” What do the people who put this show together do all day? You book fifteen matches on Dark every week, but can’t find time to book the #1 contender getting her title shot for months?!

I mean really. If you had just told us that Nyla had been named the #1 contender and that Shida was now going to give her thoughts on this, it would have been fine. Instead, they had to go out and make a storyline that made absolutely no sense and made the promotion look horribly negligent.

Anyway, Shida says she wants Nyla at Full Gear. So yeah. The women’s title match gets zero build on Dynamite, but you’ve got all the time in the world to waste every week with MJF and Jericho being clowns.

A JOBBER vs. SHAWN SPEARS (w/Tully Blanchard)- squash
Apparently Shawn Spears is 14-2 this year, and on a 10-match winning streak. Why was he not in his #1 contendership tournament as opposed someone like Janella, who has a far inferior record. Hell… f*cking WARDLOW’s record is worse that Spears’. Hell… you’d think a 10-match winning streak on its own would be enough to earn you a title shot, but apparently not.
Also, last night he trashed Scorpio Sky’s locker room and wrote “thief” on the wall. Why is he being booked against this jobber instead of against Scorpio Sky?
Spears won in thirty seconds with the C4.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Someone in a cow costume and an AEW sweatshirt threw popcorn or candy or something at Spears, so Spears dragged him over the barricade and into the ring. Isn’t there any security here to stop this?
Despite having just defeated a trained wrestler with just the C4, to beat up this apparent civilian, Spears decides he needs his loaded glove. He turns around to get the slug from Tully, and the exact thing you thought was going to happen the moment you saw it was someone in mask covering their head throwing the popcorn at Spears happened.
This was dumb as f*ck. Why can’t Scorpio Sky just be an adult and march down the ring and challenge Spears to a fight. Why does he have to dress up like a goof and throw popcorn at him first. What would have happened if Spears just ignored him throwing the popcorn, or if security had seen him and ejected him from the building?

John Silver vs. Orange Cassidy has been signed for the pre-show of Full Gear. So Nyla Rose has to wait months before they get around to booking her title shot, but they’ll book a match for this feud within the hour? And oh look, here are three more matches based off of things that have happened within the past hour getting signed for next week’s show (Miro vs. Trent, Sky vs. Spears, and Cody & Gunn Club vs. Dark Order). So why do the women have to wait months for the f*cking #1 contender to get her title match booked? What’s going on here? Is Tony Khan a sexist? Are Cody, Brandi, Kenny, Page, and the Bucks all really lazy and/or self-obsessed? Both?

Preston Vance was the member of Dark Order who Moxley broke his arm and we were all supposed to be outraged that Brodie didn’t save him when he could have, right? I love how we never saw him on TV with the broken arm, and how he’s still part of the group, and being sacrificed for no reason other than Brodie’s cowardice has not shaken his faith in the Dark Order- or Colt Cabana’s for that matter- in any way.
Also, remember how Tay Conti joined the Dark Order during the women’s tag team tournament over two months ago and hasn’t been seen since. And remember how that women’s tag tournament happened and hasn’t mattered one lick? How anyone can seriously attempt to defend the booking in this company is completely beyond me.

AEW WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL MATCH: Kenny Omega vs. Penta el 0M (w/Rey Fenix)- 7.75/10
Fenix is wearing the same shirt tonight that he is in the video of Kingston telling him he has to give up his spot to Penta because he’s injured. I guess that must be his Wednesday shirt.
Kenny’s dancing girls are in Lucha Bros. masks.
They do some spots… and then Kenny pulls up his shirt to reveal that he has been wearing his AAA Mega Campeonato belt the whole time. Did the referee not check him for foreign objects before the match? This is the dumbest sh*t. You could have achieved the exact same “mind games” sort of taunt by having Kenny reveal the title during his entrance. Instead, they decided that the best way to do this would be the way that makes the referee look completely incompetent.
Instead of having Penta get fired up by this, they wasted this spot by having Omega challenge Penta to the “let’s calmly take turns chopping each other” spot. After that crap, the match got quite good. Omega won, as you would expect.


This was yet another bad show from AEW. It was probably even worse than this week’s NXT, simply because that show was a few big mistakes, this show was a lot of mistakes of all different sizes, some of which were easily fixable. Also, the wrestling on NXT was a little better.

[Thelone]

So why do the women have to wait months for the f*cking #1 contender to get her title match booked? So what’s going on here? Is Tony Khan a sexist?

Well, the women's division is filled with subpar talent (and I'm being generous) and booked by Kenny l'artiste, so... I'm sure this is gonna sound silly, but this division feels more like it's been built to score PR/woke/whatever points, give Kenny's joshi friends jobs, and play long-term chess with some outside talent by hiring their significant other. Yes, WWE has the lionshare of female NA talent, but AEW passed on multiple women for no particular reason despite hiring dozens of bodies to fill up the pointless Youtube show and way too many "people they're high on".

Are Cody, Brandi, Kenny, Page, and the Bucks all really lazy and/or self-obsessed? Both?

I'm pretty sure Page isn't an EVP or even in charge of anything. As for the others :

• Omega always came up to me as a dumb fuck more than a glory hound, and the atrocious booking of the women's division isn't helping his case
• Cody is not subtle in the slightest and clearly wants the spotlight for himself
• The Bucks are more sneaky, but equally as bad as Cody

They all are lazy when it comes to booking other people they're not currently linked to though.

[Big Red Machine]

So why do the women have to wait months for the f*cking #1 contender to get her title match booked? So what’s going on here? Is Tony Khan a sexist?

Well, the women's division is filled with subpar talent (and I'm being generous) and booked by Kenny l'artiste, so... I'm sure this is gonna sound silly, but this division feels more like it's been built to score PR/woke/whatever points, give Kenny's joshi friends jobs, and play long-term chess with some outside talent by hiring their significant other. Yes, WWE has the lionshare of female NA talent, but AEW passed on multiple women for no particular reason despite hiring dozens of bodies to fill up the pointless Youtube show and way too many "people they're high on".

Are Cody, Brandi, Kenny, Page, and the Bucks all really lazy and/or self-obsessed? Both?

I'm pretty sure Page isn't an EVP or even in charge of anything. As for the others :

• Omega always came up to me as a dumb fuck more than a glory hound, and the atrocious booking of the women's division isn't helping his case
• Cody is not subtle in the slightest and clearly wants the spotlight for himself
• The Bucks are more sneaky, but equally as bad as Cody

They all are lazy when it comes to booking other people they're not currently linked to though.

These were actually intended as kayfabe questions.

But that doesn't invalidate anything you have said.

[Thelone]

I wasn't sure and frankly, it's kinda hard to give a kayfabe answer that isn't the actual one. "They're lazy, care more about themselves and don't use the tools they've created (like those silly rankings) to create money matches" applies to both kayfabe and shoot, although you can flesh that one out a lot more obviously.

[Big Red Machine]

I wasn't sure and frankly, it's kinda hard to give a kayfabe answer that isn't the actual one. "They're lazy, care more about themselves and don't use the tools they've created (like those silly rankings) to create money matches" applies to both kayfabe and shoot,

And my point is that the company are supposed to be babyfaces, and thus their laziness is a very bad thing that is counterproductive to 80% of the storylines on the show.