BRM Reviews the 5/19/2021 AEW (meh)

[Big Red Machine]

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. MATT SYDAL- 7.25/10
Tazz was on commentary for this match. In the funniest line said by any AEW commentator, Ross was speculating on Christian’s height as possibly “6’2 or 6’3,” at which point Taz quickly jumped in to insist “he’s 6’3. About an inch taller than me.” Never change, Taz. Never change.
I thought this was a great match. I especially liked the decision to have Christian not be the underdog. They’ve framed him as a big deal, so he needs to be presented like he’s a top talent.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Taz and Christian gestured at each other. Then Ricky Starks came out onto the sage to cut distract Christian with a promo while the rest of Team Taz jumped Christian and Sydal from behind. Adam Page casually strolled out to the ring and managed to get the best of both Brian Cage and Will Hobbs at the same time until Hook came back and took out his knee, allowing Brian Cage to hit a powerbomb, ending the fight.
In one of those excellent little details that I absolutely love, when Team Taz first attacked, Hook went after Sydal and they quickly spilled to the outside. Making sure that Hook paired off with Sydal and that they went to the outside did SOOOO much for this segment:
1. It put the focus on the attack on Christian, who Team Taz is actually feuding with.
2. It let Adam Page hold his own against two bigger names rather than one name and Taz’s snot-nosed kid.
3. Hook being on the outside allowed him to come at Page with the element of surprise to tip the scales in the heels’ favor.
And, of course, it sets up a match between Hook and Sydal which should be a good learning experience for young Hook.

VARSITY BLONDS PROMO- meh
Why is Julia Hart with them all of a sudden? In terms of delivery, Pillman was fine and Garrison needs work. In terms of content… I’m having a lot of trouble buying into the idea of the Young Bucks as these inspirational family men when they have never been presented that way on TV. The connection between these two and Bucks feels like a story that was created post-facto to emphasize the idea the fact that the Young Bucks are now heels and have changed (or however Excalibur phrases it when he shouts about it on commentary) rather than anything that actually happened. Similarly, Pillman Jr. never once talking about his father (or anything else, for that matter) and now all of a sudden the Bucks mention him and then Pillman Jr. starts talking about him now makes it feel like this was something they did specifically to try to play off of Dark Side of the Ring rather than something that was any sort of plan (especially when you throw in the fact that they have pretty much never won- or even talked- on Dynamite, and the complete and total babyface way the now-heel Bucks set this title shot up in).

JON MOXLEY & EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO- okay
They have good chemistry, but it also got a bit rambly.

ACCLAIMED PROMO- short and sweet

EDDIE KINGSTON & JON MOXLEY vs. THE ACCLAIMED- 5.75/10

ALEX MARVEZ RUDELY INTERRUPTS CHRIS JERICHO’S DISCUSSION WITH DEAN MALENKO- bad
The Inner Circle answering the Pinnacle’s challenge has already been advertised for tonight. Marvez does not need to “get the scoop” about it. Who is he even scooping here? His own program? How does that help anyone? How did this even come about? Marvez said “Hey, Tony, can I go interview Jericho to spoil the big hook of a segment you’ve already advertised for later?” and Tony said “sure!?”
And then there was Malenko’s presence, which really gets to the whole heart of the thing. The only reason Malenko was here was so Jericho could make a reference to a segment on Nitro almost twenty-five years ago. And because- as I noted above- the ostensible purpose of the segment was pointless, it makes it feel like the actual purpose of this whole segment was to be able to reference a comedy segment that happened a quarter of a century ago. Is that really a good use of TV time?

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS ETHAN PAGE & SCORPIO SKY- mixed
Scorpio Sky was not good (it was the wrong type of “get out of my way old man” promo where he doesn’t really have a reason to be upset at Sting in particular), but Ethan Page was tremendous.
Sting came out to distract the heels, allowing Darby Allin to attack them from behind with his skateboard. I’m not saying the heels’ actions so far haven’t justified an attack from behind, but I’d really prefer it if the babyfaces didn’t do that (especially if they’re going to be armed and the heels not).
The babyfaces beat the heels up. Sting caught Sky in the Scorpion Deathlock. Darby had Page’s name written on the bottom of his skateboard. They let the heels go… and then the Dark Order came out. Excalibur said they were “cutting off the retreat” of the heels, but then they just let the heels escape in a different direction and did not pursue them. I don’t understand why the Dark Order are involved with this at all.

THE PINNACLE CUT A PROMO FROM THEIR FANCY DINNER- great
MJF was completely correct when he said Jericho’s humor is lame third-grade stuff. Dax stated to cut a great promo, too, but was interrupted by Shawn Spears attacking a waiter for no reason. That part shouldn’t have happened.

HIKARU SHIDA vs. REBEL (w/Dr. Britt Baker, DMD)- no rating, great segment
The heels set a trap for the babyface. She overcame and won the match cleanly, but was felled by the post-match beat-down. Classic stuff.

KENNY OMEGA & DON CALLIS BOTHER ORANGE CASSIDY IN THE TRAINER’S ROOM LAST WEEK- dumb
First, OC’s dumb friends leave their concussed buddy alone with the heel. Don and Kenny try to trick OC into giving away his title match because Kenny might injure him. So they think he’s a threat, but also that he’s too dumb to realize that this is a trick (and don’t tell me they’re counting on the concussion to have messed with his mind because his altered state of mind would make the contract null and void)? Or is the idea that they don’t think he’s a threat and want him out of the match anyway because they don’t want Pac to pin him easily (which does nothing but buries one third of your PPV main event)? Either way, it’s bad.

INNER CIRCLE PROMO- okay
The promos weren’t bad, but other than Jericho they weren’t good, either, and we all knew what the end result was going to be, so there wasn’t much of a hook. Jericho tried his hardest to work with the idea even though we all knew what the end result would be, but when was talking about what could have happened if his head hit the back of the stage, I all I could think was “you probably would have been fine because the stage was made of cardboard and there was a bunch of padding under it.” Jericho got hurt because the planned trick that got exposed went slightly wrong. Not because the stage itself was dangerous. I kayfabe assumed he hit his head on something when he went down. The problem is that the thing he hit his head on was revealed to be padding. He didn’t say it outright (obviously), but the camera shot exposing the “trick” the other week changes the idea of Jericho getting hurt here to him getting hurt because something went wrong. I know that’s not what he intends, but the break in suspension of disbelief caused by the revealed trick results in things feeling incongruous.
Also, them shouting “YES!” in unison felt way too cartoonish.

JADE CARGILL’S INTERVIEW IS INTERRUPTED BY SOME GOOF- bad
Jade is making her point, then she gets interrupted by this goof. She dismissed him… and then doesn’t finish making her point.
That being said, when the goof said that a manager managing two wrestlers in the same division was a conflict of interest, it did seem like a good point.

NWA WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Serena Deeb(c) vs. Red Velvet- 7.5/10
Great stuff! It’s nice to see Red Velvet coming along so well.

PAC INTERVIEW OUTSIDE OF THE ELITE’S LOCKER ROOM- meh

AUSTIN GUNN (w/Cody Rhodes & Arn Anderson) vs. ANTHONY OGOGO (w/the Factory)- DUD!
They keep telling me that Austin Gunn is a second-generation wrestler. Okay… well doesn’t his dad work for this company? And isn’t his dad in the same stable as him? Why isn’t he at ringside?
Anyway… we get it. Ogogo has a superpunch. They did something cute with blood, but nothing new or interesting happened here. Ditto in the post-match stare-down with Cody.

ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS SCU- mixed
They showed a Tweet from Daniels from after last week’s match that said “That might be all.” Marvez was too dumb to figure out that this means that Daniels might retire. Marvez asked Daniel about it, at which point Daniels calmly declined an interview, shook Kaz’s hand, whispered something to him and left. This was very awkward, because if Daniels thought he might retire and was going to react to this obvious question like this, why did he even show up? His purpose served to set up Kaz’s promo well… but Christopher Daniels is a human being and his decisions need to make sense as a human being, not as an artistic prop.
Kaz then proceeded to cut a great promo saying that he was going to hunt down each and every member of the Elite for their part in ending SCU and possibly making Daniels decide to retire. The problem with it is that they really haven’t spent much of any time on the Daniels-Kaz relationship, so the idea that Kaz is vowing to make Bullet Club pay because he’s not allowed to team with his friend anymore (and because of a stipulation that he and his friend came up with on their own, no less) feels like an overreaction. (And don’t try to tell me that they established the Daniels-Kaz relationship when they did all of that stuff with SCU early on, because Scorpio Sky was included in that stuff, too, and he recently left SCU and neither Kaz nor Daniels have cared enough to even comment on it).

MIRO PROMO- awesome!
He is defending his title against Lance Archer at the PPV. It’s funny how Archer doesn’t do sh*t for months, and then, when there is a PPV, he suddenly gets booked again.
Miro cut an awesome promo on Darby and everyone else in the world, and announced that he’d give someone a title shot next week. Archer interrupted him and cut a promo that… wasn’t very good. He said he and Miro would give the fans “a monster fight they haven’t seen since Godzilla vs. Kong.” So… since last week, then? Archer seems to know the words to say to make a match sound big, but has no idea how to make me give a sh*t about him or the result of the match.
Miro responded to Archer’s promo with an even more awesome promo. In his promo, he said that Archer claims to want to fight, but always has Jake Roberts out here to hold him back. Then Jake proceeded to do exactly that, making Archer look like a total punk.

Dante Martin is getting the TNT Title shot next week because… reasons. Also next week is Adam Page vs. Joey Janela. Schiavone said that this was a rematch of their “classic” from All-In, which is true in the sense that it’s the same two wrestlers, but that match was a street fight whereas this one won’t be, so the odds of it being as great as that one are pretty low.
Next week, Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo will have a “weigh-in”… for a match that is not in a weight-bound division. Where was “detail guy” Tony Khan to catch that one?

Also for next week… more Inner Circle talking, a segment honoring Hikura Shida that Britt Baker will obviously interrupt, and Orange Cassidy responds to an offer to drop out of a title match that will have been made a full SIXTEEN DAYS ago at that point (and which no one actually thinks he’ll accept). It’s been a week since the offer was made. Has he really not said no yet?

Sting is wrestling at the PPV, which they are advertising as his first match in an arena in six years (or whatever it is). The match is obviously Sting & Darby vs. Page & Sky.

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) (w/Brandon Cutler) vs. the Varsity Blonds (w/Julia Hart)- 6.25/10
Don Callis was on commentary for this match. Basic Young Bucks stuff happened. Pillman Jr.’s back got worked over a bit and he tapped to the Sharpshooter.
During the match, Julia Hart let Matt just walk right up to her and spray her in the face with the spray. What a dumbass. That whole thing with the spray shouldn’t have happened. The Varsity Blonds have literally never won a match on Dynamite. The Young Bucks should not need to cheat to beat them. All this sh*t does is make the referee look bad.
Meltzer gave this ****, by the way, and claimed that the Bucks made the Varsity Blonds “look like main eventer babyfaces.” It seems to me that if anyone made the Blonds look especially good (and no one did), it would be the babyfaces themselves with their selling. The Bucks engaged in some heel antics in a relatively short match for a non-TV Title main event in AEW (11:33).

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- dull
Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston showed up and attacked the Bucks after a stare-down. The babyfaces choked the heels out, while the Bucks’ stooge just stood there and did nothing because… um… the booking didn’t call for him to get involved. You couldn’t have had the babyfaces knock him out in the fight? Really? And if you’re Cutler in this situation, at least have the decency to hide yourself instead of gesticulating wildly at ringside, calling attention to the fact that you’re standing there with a weapon in your hand (the spray bottle that the announcers just told me was so effective) and not doing anything. Oh, and they took the Bucks’ expensive shoes off because… um… hey! Shouldn’t the Bucks be wrestling in wrestling boots? Anyway, this felt like an angle for the sake of an angle, it and introduced a logic hole.

They ran down the PPV card after the main event and its aftermath (included the expected Bucks vs. Moxley & Kingston). While talking about Sting’s match, Schiavone said that it won’t be a “cinematic match.” That term should not be used on the air because its use all but implies that it is fake.
They announced Big Show as the special guest commentator for the battle royale. Wasn’t this the guy who has only won one battle royale in his life (the 2015 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royale. And I don’t blame you one bit if you forgot about that)? Some “expert.”

This was an okay show from AEW. There was some great stuff, but also some counterproductive stuff. The good stuff was mostly from the people you’d expect, while the not so good/stupid/okay but got blown out of proportion stuff was also from the people you’d expect (Omega, Bucks, Cody). While watching the PPV run-down, I got the feeling that they don’t trust the audience to find them on Friday next week, so they tried to book this as a go-home show of sorts, and in that respect, this show succeeded, albeit mildly in most cases. I don’t blame them for thinking that way because I don’t think they did a good job of promoting the time change, but I don’t know how much advanced notice they had about it, so I’m not totally going to hold it against them.

[Thelone]

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. MATT SYDAL- 7.25/10
I thought this was a great match. I especially liked the decision to have Christian not be the underdog. They’ve framed him as a big deal, so he needs to be presented like he’s a top talent.

Also Sydal really hasn't done anything since his debut, so him dominating Christian would have been ludicrous.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS ETHAN PAGE & SCORPIO SKY- mixed
Scorpio Sky was not good (it was the wrong type of “get out of my way old man” promo where he doesn’t really have a reason to be upset at Sting in particular), but Ethan Page was tremendous.

I'll just say a variation of what I used to say during ROH's TPT : if you're in your late 30s, been wrestling for almost twenty and never broke out in any significant way, it's because you just don't have what it takes to be more than what you currently are. Is Sky awful? No. Is he a future main eventer or even upper midcarder? No he's not either.

THE PINNACLE CUT A PROMO FROM THEIR FANCY DINNER- great
MJF was completely correct when he said Jericho’s humor is lame third-grade stuff. Dax stated to cut a great promo, too, but was interrupted by Shawn Spears attacking a waiter for no reason. That part shouldn’t have happened.

Same thing here with Mr. Ten. Just because you make him crazy or whatever isn't going to make him more interesting all of a sudden.

JADE CARGILL’S INTERVIEW IS INTERRUPTED BY SOME GOOF- bad
Jade is making her point, then she gets interrupted by this goof. She dismissed him… and then doesn’t finish making her point.

I'm not sure AEW should put that many chips on Cargill this quickly. She looks like a million bucks, no doubt about it, but her character seems to be generic arrogant woman with little to no substance behind. Also, I feel like she's someone who won't be staying in wrestling for long and leave whenever something more lucrative comes up.

MIRO PROMO- awesome!

Again, it's a shame he didn't debut this way and not as the best man for Sabian's wedding and feuding over dumb shit like a broken Pac-Man cabinet.

Next week, Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo will have a “weigh-in”… for a match that is not in a weight-bound division. Where was “detail guy” Tony Khan to catch that one?

Well you see, Ogogo was a former boxer and that's what boxers do. Maybe he'll drink some tea while eating scones and fish & chips as well, like the dirty british scumbag he is.

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) (w/Brandon Cutler) vs. the Varsity Blonds (w/Julia Hart)- 6.25/10
[...]
Meltzer gave this ****, by the way, and claimed that the Bucks made the Varsity Blonds “look like main eventer babyfaces.” It seems to me that if anyone made the Blonds look especially good (and no one did), it would be the babyfaces themselves with their selling. The Bucks engaged in some heel antics in a relatively short match for a non-TV Title main event in AEW (11:33).

Remember when the Bucks "made" Private Party in the first Dynamite? Hell, some people are still mentioning that today even though they did fuck all with that team after that "big" win. Granted, they've shown nothing since then and been overshadowed by countless teams, but still.

This was an okay show from AEW. There was some great stuff, but also some counterproductive stuff. The good stuff was mostly from the people you’d expect, while the not so good/stupid/okay but got blown out of proportion stuff was also from the people you’d expect (Omega, Bucks, Cody). While watching the PPV run-down, I got the feeling that they don’t trust the audience to find them on Friday next week, so they tried to book this as a go-home show of sorts, and in that respect, this show succeeded, albeit mildly in most cases. I don’t blame them for thinking that way because I don’t think they did a good job of promoting the time change, but I don’t know how much advanced notice they had about it, so I’m not totally going to hold it against them.

It's the weakest PPV they've put up by far. Most top matches have been thrown together during the last few weeks, and pretty much all of them have obvious outcomes.

[Big Red Machine]

Agreed that this is the weakest show so far. Putting the women in the main event would have made sense here and maybe helped the buyrate a bit, but apparently Omega vs. Pac vs. OC is main eventing, which is ridiculous at this point. Britt vs. Shida should be the main event with Bucks vs. Mox/Kingston second, just off of build.

[Thelone]

As much as I hate to say it, they should put the tag title match last because it's one of the few matches that could go either way. Both world and TNT matches feature lame duck challengers no one buys (AGAIN) and while you can make a case about the women closing the show for the moment™, the foregone conclusion kills it for me. It's the same reason I don't have such fond memories of Sasha-Bayley at TO:Brooklyn and preferred Sasha-Becky at the previous Takeover by far.

[cero2k]

Agreed that this is the weakest show so far. Putting the women in the main event would have made sense here and maybe helped the buyrate a bit, but apparently Omega vs. Pac vs. OC is main eventing, which is ridiculous at this point. Britt vs. Shida should be the main event with Bucks vs. Mox/Kingston second, just off of build.

No way in hell they don't main event with Stadium Stampede, which I still have no idea how they're doing it with fans live.

[Big Red Machine]

Agreed that this is the weakest show so far. Putting the women in the main event would have made sense here and maybe helped the buyrate a bit, but apparently Omega vs. Pac vs. OC is main eventing, which is ridiculous at this point. Britt vs. Shida should be the main event with Bucks vs. Mox/Kingston second, just off of build.

No way in hell they don't main event with Stadium Stampede, which I still have no idea how they're doing it with fans live.

Forgot about that. That's a good point.

[NWK2000]

KENNY OMEGA & DON CALLIS BOTHER ORANGE CASSIDY IN THE TRAINER’S ROOM LAST WEEK- dumb
First, OC’s dumb friends leave their concussed buddy alone with the heel. Don and Kenny try to trick OC into giving away his title match because Kenny might injure him. So they think he’s a threat, but also that he’s too dumb to realize that this is a trick (and don’t tell me they’re counting on the concussion to have messed with his mind because his altered state of mind would make the contract null and void)? Or is the idea that they don’t think he’s a threat and want him out of the match anyway because they don’t want Pac to pin him easily (which does nothing but buries one third of your PPV main event)? Either way, it’s bad.

I like this from an OC character building standpoint. Just looking at the dude you might think he'd want to take the easy way out and because he's so quiet that he's easily duped, but as we all know, it's a ruse that Orange puts on so people will underestimate him. If this exact segment was done by, just as an example, Brian Cage and Taz, it would make sense because they don't know him that well, so they might think it works. Kenny looks like a doofus because he probably was instrumental in getting Orange to sign as EVP of the company, so Kenny kinda looks dumb.

[Big Red Machine]

KENNY OMEGA & DON CALLIS BOTHER ORANGE CASSIDY IN THE TRAINER’S ROOM LAST WEEK- dumb
First, OC’s dumb friends leave their concussed buddy alone with the heel. Don and Kenny try to trick OC into giving away his title match because Kenny might injure him. So they think he’s a threat, but also that he’s too dumb to realize that this is a trick (and don’t tell me they’re counting on the concussion to have messed with his mind because his altered state of mind would make the contract null and void)? Or is the idea that they don’t think he’s a threat and want him out of the match anyway because they don’t want Pac to pin him easily (which does nothing but buries one third of your PPV main event)? Either way, it’s bad.

I like this from an OC character building standpoint. Just looking at the dude you might think he'd want to take the easy way out and because he's so quiet that he's easily duped, but as we all know, it's a ruse that Orange puts on so people will underestimate him. If this exact segment was done by, just as an example, Brian Cage and Taz, it would make sense because they don't know him that well, so they might think it works. Kenny looks like a doofus because he probably was instrumental in getting Orange to sign as EVP of the company, so Kenny kinda looks dumb.

1. The problem with the whole "it's a ruse" theory of Orange Cassidy is all of the times that he does things that are completely disadvantageous to him. The purpose of a ruse is to gain a strategic advantage. You don't then give that advantage away.
2. Kenny looking dumb isn't a good thing. And if the "ruse" theory were plausible, then anyone who "underestimates" him is an idiot because the "ruse" has already been exposed on national TV, and you don't want any character we're supposed to take seriously to come off like an idiort.

[NWK2000]

.
2. Kenny looking dumb isn't a good thing. And if the "ruse" theory were plausible, then anyone who "underestimates" him is an idiot because the "ruse" has already been exposed on national TV, and you don't want any character we're supposed to take seriously to come off like an idiort.

I'm not saying it's a good thing. I just think the whole thing would've hit better if any other wrestler/manager team were swapped out for Kenny, because Taz or Jake Roberts might not know Orange enough and think that it'll work. I guess in summary I like the idea of the heels being thwarted by underestimating Orange, but you'd think if anyone would know what he's all about it'd be the EVP of the company.

[Big Red Machine]

.
2. Kenny looking dumb isn't a good thing. And if the "ruse" theory were plausible, then anyone who "underestimates" him is an idiot because the "ruse" has already been exposed on national TV, and you don't want any character we're supposed to take seriously to come off like an idiort.

I'm not saying it's a good thing. I just think the whole thing would've hit better if any other wrestler/manager team were swapped out for Kenny, because Taz or Jake Roberts might not know Orange enough and think that it'll work. I guess in summary I like the idea of the heels being thwarted by underestimating Orange, but you'd think if anyone would know what he's all about it'd be the EVP of the company.

I'm saying that at this point, there is no excuse for anyone to be underestimating him. Jake, Tully, Taz, and even Vicki (raise your hand if you remembered that she was employed. And be honest) are supposed to be smart and savvy. All of them would have done their homework.