BRM Reviews the 2/9/2022 Dynamite (A Microcosm of AEW)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- good promos, bad everything else
Wardlow has been ordered to carry cardboard cut-outs of MJF beating CM Punk to the ring. Also, everyone else in the group gets an entrance, but Wardlow doesn’t get an entrance. Because now that they want to do an angle where he will turn on MJF, MJF has suddenly lost all diplomatic skill. Explain to me how this is “good storytelling.”
The announcers, of course, are so outraged about Wardlow’s mistreatment… and as a result, are completely ignoring the fact that Wardlow fully went along with MJF’s plan last week and helped him cheat to screw CM Punk out of the match.
MJF got an elaborate ring introduction which Justin Roberts was ordered to give, and was carried to the ring on a throne. There were women to make out with him. Then he and his pals did a big end-zone dance together, to which Wardlow was either not invited (because MJF has magically lost his previously-shown diplomatic skill) or because he was feeling guilty over screwing CM Punk out of a match, even though he has no attachment to the guy. “SToRyteLLiNg.”
MJF gives a big speech in which he builds it up as if he’s going to thank Wardlow and credit him with the win, but then he swerves the viewers (by which I mean everyone but Wardlow himself and the announcers) by giving credit to Spears instead for warming him up.
MJF and Spears go on for a while until Punk interrupts them. He says he has learned from his mistakes and has now gotten himself some friends in the form of Darby Allin and Sting, armed with baseball bats. Punk says he wants a rematch. MJF says “no,” but Punk clarifies that he was talking to Wardlow, who he claims no one in the Pinnacle would have won a match in the past six months without. He also tells Wardlow that he can get the beating that the rest of the Pinnacle are about to receive, or he can “grow some balls and leave these jerks.”
I’m sorry, but Wardlow is way too far on the heel side of the line for me to be okay with Punk letting him off the hook the way he seems to be. The dude is a heel. This whole “babyface push” of his started with him winning matches via what was pretty much excessive punishment, and at every single turn, he has down the wrong thing morally.
We’ve now shifted from Punk wanting a match with Wardlow to Punk wanting a match with MJF to Punk being happy with another Punk, Sting, & Darby vs. MJF & FTR six-man tag. What’s to stop MJF from just running away again?
MJF counters with the following: FTR vs. Punk and any partner of his choosing other than Darby or Sting tonight, and if Punk’s team wins, Punk gets MJF, anywhere, anytime, in any match of his choosing. I’m ALMOST okay with this as something that Punk would accept instead of just delivering the promised beating to the Pinnacle, except for this one problem: WHY DOESN’T TONY KHAN JUST BOOK PUNK VS. MJF?!
MJF was willing to offer this because he doesn’t think Punk will be able to find a partner because “good luck finding someone in the back who doesn’t hate your guts.” Do people hate Punk? I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence of this other than the non-injured Eddie Kingston. Either this isn’t true, so MJF is an idiot, or it is true, and Punk is being foolish by agreeing to this instead of just going nuts with the baseball bats.
Also, props to Dax Hardwood for admitting that he looked pretty terrible in that suit, and even more props to him for turning it into a big positive for his character.

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH STING, DARBY ALLIN, & ANDRADE EL IDOLO (& JOSE THE ASSISTANT) FACE TO FACE (TO FACE TO FACE, I GUESS)- good performances, but I just don’t get why any of this is happening.
Sting and Darby reiterate that Darby is not Sting’s servant. Darby says he has better things to do than work for Andrade, such as regain the TNT Title. Andrade says that Darby “wants” the title, but he himself will be the next champion. So does Andrade want to hire Darby to remove him as competition for the title?

THE BLADE vs. WARDLOW (w/Shawn Spears)- 4/10
The Blade is in a stable of about twelve people, and no one came out to ringside with him. Not even his manager who is also his wife. He has also apparently won six of his last eight singles matches. Have we even seen him wrestle a singles match since whenever his brass knuckles blow-off with Orange Cassidy was (last summer, maybe)? According to Jim Ross, he has also been winning with the Doctor Bomb, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use.
We were told that Wardlow “signed up for this match” with “short notice,” and Excalibur pointed out that he didn’t even “have time to tape up.” Well that’s his own fault for taking a match on short notice, then, isn’t it?
The Blade jumped the bell on Wardlow, taking his knee out from behind. Is The Blade cheating? Sure. But I’d have a lot more sympathy for Wardlow if he didn’t help MJF cheat just last week. Wardlow overcame both being jumped and not having time to tape up, and won anyway, so who cares?
After the match, Shawn Spears got in the ring and hit The Blade with a chair, which we were told made Wardlow angry for the nonsensically nebulous reason that it was “stealing the spotlight.” See my review of the 12/29/2021 Dynamite for why that doesn’t hold water.
And, of course, in hindsight we can see that reason that The Blade was not accompanied to ringside by either of his two usual managers is because if one of them had come out with him, there would have been someone there to stop the chairshot… but the storyline needed the chairshot to happen, and so they are both mysteriously absent, for no discernable reason other than to progress the storyline. And when your characters’ actions feel driven by the needs of the story you want to tell rather than any established motivation of their own, that’s a failure of storytelling.

PENTA VIDEO- AWESOME!
“When Malakai Black spit into his face, he spit into his soul!” He went to a graveyard and dug up one of his old masks. “Why is the mask a grave?” is the sort of question that doesn’t bother me in a situation like this, because this is clearly a post-produced video package with the kayfabe intention of intimidating Penta’s opponents (and Malakai Black in particular), so I’m fine with the idea that he buried it there himself to make this look cooler and make himself look crazier.

Excalibur framed Malakai’s black mist as “having lasting effects and bringing out a different side of this victims,” but I don’t think that’s true at all. Pac felt like the same old Pac (he had done a “look at me, I’m so crazy” video before returning from the pandemic, and I think during the Omega feud as well), and Julia Hart has been a little different, but it didn’t feel like anything out of the ordinary for someone who was just angry, and we really hadn’t seen Julia angry before.


INNER CIRCLE “TEAM MEETING”- Once again: EXCELLENT performances, but the story just doesn’t work!
Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, and Sammy Guevara all came out to Jericho’s music. LAX didn’t come out with them. Jericho started to tell us that they haven’t seen LAX all day… and LAX chose that point to come out (to their own music) purposely interrupting Jericho. Jericho, Sammy, and Hager were all wearing their Inner Circle vests, LAX were not.
Jericho lectures them for not tagging him in against 2.0 a few weeks ago, claiming that they “robbed our fans who came to see Chris Jericho wrestle.”

Santana gave a big speech in which he made the following accusations: Any time they had to shift their focus to something, it has only benefited one person: Chris Jericho. And that any time they have gathered momentum, it has been thrown to the side so that they could come to Jericho’s rescue. Jericho, Satana alleges, has been purposely holding them down.
Jericho says that he is the “influencer” here and asks them what Kingston has ever done for them. Jericho points out that they actually HAD their chance to become the tag champs (he even gave us the freakin’ date: 2/17/2021) and they lost. That’s not his fault.
Jericho says that he brought them in to the Inner Circle and he can take them out. He suggests that he brought in “the wrong two members of LAX,” and asks Hager if he still has Homicide and Hernandez’s phone numbers. I would LOVE to see those two in the Inner Circle (although I’m not sure why Jericho thinks that they would be on his side, considering that the only time we have seen Homicide in AEW, he was helping Eddie Kingston).
Santana went after Jericho, and Sammy had to pull them apart. Sammy was all “we’re a family!” but Jericho told him to shut up. Jericho tried to talk but Sammy interrupted him. He said that his goal was to be the greatest champion ever, and this bickering wasn’t going to help it, so he threatened to quit. He said “I’ve quit this group before,” which seems to ignore the fact that his previous quitting was designed as a ruse to fool MJF. It also makes Sammy look kind of crappy to threaten to quit the group out of fear that their drama would hamper his career five seconds after he called them a “family” and said he loved all of them.
Ortiz picked up Sammy’s mic and blamed Sammy’s potential quitting on Jericho. He then went to set Jericho straight on the influence that Eddie Kingston has had on their careers… although, again, he didn’t actually provide any details. Ortiz said that where they come from, they settle things with fists instead of words, so he challenged Jericho and Hager to a match next week where I just the idea is that they will work out their frustrations physically and then be friends again. Jericho says that he didn’t want it to come to this, but then accepts.

Okay, let’s get the easy thing out of the way first: Sammy. In addition to what I mentioned above about him calling them a family and then saying he would leave them because he thought their drama would hurt his professional aspirations, there is the simple fact that Sammy regained his TNT Title while Jericho and LAX have been bickering, so it really doesn’t seem to have hurt him yet at all.

Now the big thing, which is what kills this story for me. While it is absolutely indisputable that Jericho has been a tremendous dick for the past month, LAX’s accusations don’t ring true in any way. Even with the ability to look back at everything through the lens of these accusations, at no point does it seem like LAX had momentum, then all of a sudden had to shift directions and fight some fight Jericho had started instead of pursuing the tag titles. The only feuds I can remember Jericho arguably starting were the Orange Cassidy feud (during which time LAX lost several #1 contendership matches cleanly), and the Dan Lambert feud, where they dropped out of the Top Five, but they were only ranked about four or five at that point, and since that feud ended, they got right back to four or five, and haven’t gone any higher since, and they’re hardly the only team at that ranking (or better) that has had trouble getting a title shot.

AEW prides itself on “long-term storytelling” (or at the very least, its fans defend it as doing so), but time and again they fail to tell these stories well.
FULL DISCLAIMER: I’m about to toot my own horn here by using my fantasy booking as an example. I do this not for the purpose of tooting my own horn, but because it is the example of this with which I am most intimately familiar, and this review will already be long enough as it is, so I don’t want to spend time having to re-watch a bunch of video packages for Hogan vs. Savage. And yes, I am familiar with the limitations of fantasy booking, but for a scenario where everyone stayed healthy and there were no other unexpected situations that made someone unavailable, I think it’s fine to purely compare the storytelling between a fantasy angle and one that actually happened (especially when you take into consideration that this wasn’t a one-off angle, but rather was something I did in the midst of full-on booking an entire promotion for a years-long run.
Also, for the first time, I’m actually going to spoil something I have upcoming (and I’m sure I’ll get around to writing eventually) in by big “BRM Books Raw 1,000 and Beyond” fantasy booking thread. To review (because I’m sure not everyone remembers things from a twenty-page thread that I haven’t posted in for almost four years now):
For years, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have been enemies and friends and then enemies again and then friends again, with every time they were enemies, it being because Ambrose “snapped” and/or was taken in by cult leader Bray Wyatt, with Rollins taking it upon himself to either help Ambrose control the “hardcore monster” that dwelt within him (brought out by that rumored WrestleMania match against Mick Foley that Ambrose and Foley were building to on Twitter for a minute or two back in the 2012), or trying to free him from the manipulations of Bray Wyatt, who had promised Ambrose that same thing.
At this point they were friends, and Rollins had earned a title shot at the February PPV, but was taken out by the League of Nations to protect their leader, Wade Barrett. Ambrose held Money in the Bank at the time, and vowed to use it to get revenge for Rollins and take Barrett’s title at the PPV. On the day of the PPV, it turned out that Rollins was cleared early and was inserted as a last-minute replacement into the pre-show match, and was able to be at ringside as his friend Dean won the title, and as Dean was celebrating being lifted up onto the shoulders of the other babyfaces, Rollins (who had been taken out during the match, trying to stop Sylvester Lefort from interfering) leapt into the ring with a springboard knee, knocking Dean down and going after him, causing the locker room to break it up and the show to end with Michael Cole shouting “WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO SETH ROLLINS!?”
What I never got around to writing was Rollins big explanation segment. In this segment Rollins would explain that this was not just mere “jealousy” as I would have had the announced speculate, but rather Rollins was infuriated that Dean had achieved what Rollins had been unable to achieve so many times, and always because of Dean.
Rollins would then point to about ten to fifteen different incidents that I had peppered out across the two and a half years since Rollins had initially gone to try to help Ambrose with his problem where Rollins could claim that his association with Ambrose had cost him an opportunity. These would range from the fair and obvious- having the Wyatt Family cause him to lose the title shot he won by winning the Royal Rumble to Cesaro because Rollins had been trying to steer Ambrose away from Bray, or Rollins going into a WWE Title match against Cesaro with an injured back because the Wyatts had powerbombed him through a table the previous night, or losing an IC Title match because, during their initial enemies phrase, he had come out to protect someone from Ambrose earlier- to the unfortunate (Dean’s heading towards the ring to cheer Seth on while holding his MITB briefcase making the referee go over to Dean and ask him if he wanted to cash it in right now, causing the referee to not see Rollins pinning John Cena in a WWE Title match)- to choices Seth himself made that he now regrets (like spending so much time working with Dean that he wasn’t able to prepare for a title shot well enough and thus lost- to the downright petty (Ambrose volunteering them to defend their tag titles against the Dudleys at the Royal Rumble when Rollins had been planning on entering the Rumble instead).
Did I have all of these incidents (and more) mapped out before I put the first hint of the storyline on TV? Of course not. I had the visual of the turn at the end, and I had the first few months mapped out with them ending that part of it as enemies because I knew that to be effective it had to be a multi-year thing, with various ups and down in the relationship. But I always knew what the reason for the turn was going to be, and thus, at every opportunity where I could make it feel natural (and especially in that final year when they were babyface best friends), I purposely peppered in situations where the link between him and Dean could somehow result in Seth getting screwed.
And in my notes, I kept a list, because I knew that in order to make Seth not just feel like your run-of-the-mill heel who gets jealous and turns, I had to have Seth explain himself, with evidence to point to.
LAX didn’t have that here… and they’re the ones who we’re supposed to side with! I was just doing it to make my heel feel less generic!
But did you notice who did have evidence? Chris Jericho. He pointed to a specific date where LAX had their shot at lost. Actually, Jericho was even a little diplomatic here. I looked back at my review for that match, and it turned out that the reason that LAX lost that match was because “Ortiz was an idiot and shouted about how they were the best for a long time before getting back into the ring after powerbombing Matt into the crowd, so when he got back into the ring, Nick rolled him up for the win, making him look like an idiot,” so the loss was LAX’s own fault. And, for the record, the Inner Circle were at ringside with LAX.
So while Jericho is a dick and I would be fine with LAX leaving for that reason, that isn’t their stated reason for leaving, and thus I can’t get behind them. And this is far from the first time that AEW has had problems with this sort of thing. Adam Page’s supposed “confidence issues” and being afraid of losing to Omega,

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH ROPPONGI VICE IS INTERRUPTED BY THE YOUNG BUCKS- meh
They (and Cole) jump Roppongi Vice. This would have worked a lot better for me if Roppongi Vice and the Bucks hadn’t come off so goofy, and if the BTE-Trigger that the Bucks gave Rocky hadn’t looked so bad.
Jay White showed up, so they gave him the honor of being the one to throw Trent into the production truck. Introducing Jay White like this took the focus off of the Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice match on Rampage.
Excalibur shouted about how “JAY WHITE HAS WALKED THROUGH THE FORBIDDEN DOOR!” Is it really a “forbidden” door at this point? He’s like the seventh guy from New Japan to show up. I’m also just not excited about Jay White in AEW because there’s no room for him.

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION LADDER MATCH QUALIFYING MATCH: Isiah Kassdy (w/Matt Hardy & Marq Quen) vs. Keith Lee- mostly an awesome squash, except for the part that ruined it.
See… this is exactly the problem. Keith Lee needs the time and attention right now, and any time and attention spent on Jay White is time that can’t be spent on Keith Lee.
Excalibur claimed that this was the “first-ever Face of the Revolution Ladder match qualifier,” which is certainly is not, as they did some qualifiers last year.
J.R. said that Keith Lee “looks like a young Mark Henry.” I think their body-types are different enough that I certainly wouldn’t have said that (Mark is not a regularly-proportioned human. Keith Lee looks like a regularly proportioned human who got bombarded with gamma rays, and is now just bigger and stronger, but his body’s proportions are still normal). What I will say here is that I was glad that the “younger” part looked like it applied. Here was a while in NXT where Lee had quite a bit of gray showing, but he appears to have dyed it out of his beard, so that was good.
Anyway, the match started out as the PERFECT Keith Lee debut match, showing off his power, agility, and attitude. Matt Hardy was so disgusted that he walked out on Private Party.
And then someone had to ruin it by deciding that Isiah Kassidy needed to get offense in on Keith Lee in Keith Lee’s debut. And in a match where they were having Matt walk out on Private Party because of their inability to win! Having Kassidy get offense in on Lee is counter-productive to everything they tried to do!

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Marq Quen attacked Henry after the match… and someone decided that Quen needed to be able to look effective, too. I know that it all lead to Keith Lee doing col sh*t, but he would have looked even better if he had just destroyed Quen. If you want to show off that cool sh*t, you can just book Keith Lee vs, Marq Quen for next week and do the big spot where Lee catches his dive next week (even better, start the match off like that; with Quen trying to jump the gun on Lee with a dive but Lee catching him).

THUNDER ROSA VS. MERCEDES MARTINEZ/BRITT BAKER VIDEO PACKAGE- great, although I’d have liked Thunder Rosa to maybe be out a little longer after that crazy pipe shot to the head. Next week’s match will be no DQs.

SAMMY GUEVARA CUE-CARD PROMO- terrible
He cannot be talking about serious issues in this inherently comedic format.

IF CM PUNK’S TEAM WINS, HE GETS A MATCH AGAINST MJF ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, AND WITH ANY STIPULATONS THAT HE WANTS: CM Punk & Jon Moxley vs. FTR (w/Tully Blanchard)- 8.5/10
Punk’s knee got worked over early, but Moxley was the babyface who got isolated. That spot where Dax drew Punk away from the corner so Moxley couldn’t tag him in, and then Cash stopped Punk from getting back for the tag with the shoulder block off the apron as Punk was heading back reminded me of why I love FTR so much. It’s little things like that that make a match memorable for me.
They actually got me to bite on pretty much all of their false finishes here (and some credit there is due to Adam Page and the Dark Order losing that big elimination match last summer to teach us that in AEW, the person in the position of “beat my cronies and you get what you want” doesn’t always win). The only real misstep here was the Tully spot. Why did Tully think it was going to be more effective to spend time taking his jacket off so that he could hit Punk in the face with the soft jacket instead of just running over and kicking him?
This match was a much-needed reminder of how awesome FTR are, and so much of what I loved about this match was highlighted for me by the discussion in the other thread. Let’s hope that they are given a lot more chances to do this sort of thing again in 2022 than they were in 2021.

AEW TBS TITLE MATCH: Jade Cargill(c) (w/Mark Sterling) vs. A.Q.A.- 4.75/10
A.Q.A. cut an inset promo that was good, but I can’t help but ask why the hell this debuting nobody is getting a title shot when we have an official list of ranked contenders. It’s even more ridiculous in light of what the next match would be. Tony Khan needed matches for Cargill and Deeb, and instead of booking them against each other in a title match, he books them both against nobodies and lets Deeb do a gimmick where the match has a five-minute time limit? What a moron!
That being said, this was a good little power vs. speed match. A.Q.A. was a very good babyface. Like with the men, I’m not sure that there is room for her in the division, but I’d definitely take her over Red Velvet, Kiera Hogan, Julia Hart, and even over Jamie Hayter and Riho, just for the purposes of being able to connect with the audience (Riho hasn’t) (and that’s ignoring people who are under contract but we haven’t seen wrestle in forever like Leva Bates, and Brandi. And, of course, I’d take her over Abadon). A.Q.A. really feels like she fills a niche (high-flying underdog female babyface) that AEW doesn’t have filled yet.

ADAM COLE & THE YOUNG BUCKS PROMO- meh
The Bucks were too over the top in their promo on Roppongi Vice. Adam Cole assigned them Jay White as back-up for their match. The Bucks didn’t know about Jay White being around, and they point out that Jay White and Kenny Omega were “arch-enemies” at one point. That would have been a better point if the Bucks (and Kenny, for that matter) hadn’t turned on Cole in ROH and everyone is just ignoring that.
Cole says he has a statement to make, and leaves.
Then the Bucks asked Bradon Cutler if he knew Jay White would be there tonight, and Cutler replies “I may have read something about it on reddit.” Obviously this was intended as a laugh-line, but it really opens a big can of worms. Do the wrestlers not keep themselves abreast of industry news? They start to look silly when the internet knows who is going to debut but the wrestlers don’t, and this just brought that into kayfabe.

Also, theoretically Tony Khan new that Jay White would be here, right? Doesn’t he keep the other EVPs informed of these things? And if Tony didn’t know, why is everyone okay with White being here and coming back for Rampage, when he just attacked somebody. That kind of question really extended to Mercedes Martinez, too, now that we know that Britt Baker is the one who brought her in. And ditto for reDRagon, who Cole brought in. I would like answers to these questions, and the only reason I’m asking them is because AEW has gone out of their way to tell us that these people did not come in through the usual means.

SERENA DEEB PROMO- bad
I’m sorry, but this Serena Deeb comes off as someone playing a tough-gal and playing a heel rather than someone who actually is tough and mean. She’s talking about ending this poor jobber’s life, and I don’t buy for a second that the job is in actual mortal danger (compare to, say, Moxley or Lance Archer, or even Britt Baker, who I would believe would go to whatever lengths she deemed necessary to win, up to and including crippling someone for life).

THE PROFESSOR’S FIVE-MINUTE ROOKIE CHALLENGE: Serena Deeb vs. Katie Arquette- squash
They accidentally started their count-down clock at 4:52, then had to change it. Oops.

JURASSIC EXPRESS VS. GUNN CLUB VIDEO PACKAGE- great!
Gunn Club were tremendous! Jungle Boy’s delivery was fine, but this idea that Gunn Club feel “entitled” to a title shot and thus I’m not supposed to like them completely fails for me because they really do deserve a title shot. They’ve been a highly-ranked team for a long time.

TEXAS DEATHMATCH FOR THE AEW WORLD TITLE: Adam Page(c) vs. Lance Archer- 8.25/10
Apparently in a Texas Deathmatch in AEW “the only way to win is by knockout or submission.” That’s not the rules they used in Moxley vs. Archer.
They bled A LOT. I don’t know if it was more than the Tay-Jay vs. Bunnelope match, but I really hope that Mercedes and Thunder Rosa don’t take this as a challenge and try to out-do them next week.
They started the match brawling out through the tunnel. That felt corny to me. Page immediately threw Archer through a pain of glass on this unexplained structure on the stage. Even worse, they went full WWE and apparently had a camera inside this structure, just in case someone happened to throw someone else through it.
They did good spots. Archer cut Page off. At that point Dan Lambert came down and started taking the ring apart. If he wants to help Archer win, why not just go stomp on Page? J.R. suggested that the plan was to take the ropes away so that Page couldn’t use the Buckshot Lariat. I guess that makes sense, but it’s still a little silly to think that Page would need the Buckshot Lariat to win a match where he can beat Archer in the head with a brick for ten straight minutes of he wants. That did actually come into play later, and I thought that Page looked kind of stupid, not knowing what to do now that he couldn’t hit the Buckshot Lariat.
Jake Roberts attacked Page. He was going to go for the DDT…and the crowd all popped, because they wanted to see the legendary Jake Roberts hit his famous finishing move… on our heroic babyface champion here in this world title match. Why are some fans so dumb?
Also dumb is Lance Archer, who yelled at Jake and stopped him from hitting the DDT on Page. He started arguing with Jake, resulting in Page being a to recover and hit the DDT on Archer.
They had an awesomely violent match. I usually don’t this stipulation that much (they were treating it as Last Man Standing, with the “knockout” Excalibur had mentioned before being a technical knockout), and I thought this rocked, simply because of the level of violence.
And then the f*cking finish happened, and I took off an entire .25 just for the idiocy of the finish. Archer won on the apron, with two tables set up on the floor behind him. Page was holding a strand of barbed wire. He tossed it down onto the mat, and here in this no DQs match in a ring littered with weapons, referee Paul Turner saw it and decided that he needed to bend down and pick it up. He bent at his waist instead of at his knees like you would expect. This all happened so that Page could run and do a roll off his back to substitute for the flipping motion to make what would otherwise have been a regular running lariat into a Buckshot Lariat, sending Archer off the apron and through the tables for the finish (Page went down, too, but he got up in time). The problem with this is that the whole point of the Buckshot Lariat is that you are using the kinetic energy of the ropes to throw yourself with more force at the opponent. All the flip does is let you get into the ring without getting slowed down by hitting the ropes! What Page did here actually SLOWED HIM DOWN, so he hit Archer with less force than he would have if he had just done a regular f*cking running lariat.

This show was AEW in a nutshell. There can be some great wrestling, but the matches often take turns into the absurd, and storylines- no matter how good the wrestlers’ deliveries of the promos are- almost all suffer from fatal plot-holes.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Tony Schiavone referred to the Inner Circle as “the founding faction in AEW.”
How the hell are these guys, who weren’t even together until they had TV, the “founding faction” when they are pre-dated by several other groups, such as SCU and THE GUYS WHO WERE INVOLVED SO EARLY ON THAT THEIR NAME IS IN THE F*CKING NAME OF THE COMPANY?!

[XIV]

Why was Page vs Archer a Texas Deathmatch? What about the booking or the feud meant that it could only be decided in such a way? It's another example of having an unnecessary stipulation on a World Title match just because. Terrible booking.

[Big Red Machine]

Granted the MJF segment and some of the matches were really good, Keith Lee and Jay White debuts were cool, a lot of the other stuff were filler and the storylines were incoherent a lot of times. I don't understand how people rate this as one of the best Dynamite episodes to date. It felt like I was watching WWE lite.

It's because they're so lost in the delivery that they don't think about the actual words being said and if they make sense, given the evidence.

[cero2k]

OPENING SEGMENT- good promos, bad everything else
Wardlow has been ordered to carry cardboard cut-outs of MJF beating CM Punk to the ring. Also, everyone else in the group gets an entrance, but Wardlow doesn’t get an entrance. Because now that they want to do an angle where he will turn on MJF, MJF has suddenly lost aa diplomatic skill. Explain to me how this is “good storytelling.”
The announcers, of course, are so outraged about Wardlow’s mistreatment… and as a result, are completely ignoring the fact that Wardlow fully went along with MJF’s plan last week and helped him cheat to screw CM Punk out of the match.
MJF got an elaborate ring introduction which Justin Roberts was ordered to give, and was carried to the ring on a throne. There were women to make out with him. Then he and his pals did a big end-zone dance together, to which Wardlow was either not invited (because MJF has magically lost his previously-shown diplomatic skill) or because he was feeling guilty over screwing CM Punk out of a match, even though he has no attachment to the guy. “SToRyteLLiNg.”
MJF gives a big speech in which he builds it up as if he’s going to thank Wardlow and credit him with the win, but then he swerves the viewers (by which I mean everyone but Wardlow himself and the announcers) by giving credit to Spears instead for warming him up.
MJF and Spears go on for a while until Punk interrupts them. He says he has learned from his mistakes and has now gotten himself some friends in the form of Darby Allin and Sting, armed with baseball bats. Punk says he wants a rematch. MJF says “no,” but Punk clarifies that he was talking to Wardlow, who he claims no one in the Pinnacle would have won a match in the past six months without. He also tells Wardlow that he can get the beating that the rest of the Pinnacle are about to receive, or he can “grow some balls and leave these jerks.”
I’m sorry, but Wardlow is way too far on the heel side of the line for me to be okay with Punk letting him off the hook the way he seems to be. The dude is a heel. This whole “babyface push” of his started with him winning matches via what was pretty much excessive punishment, and at every single turn, he has down the wrong thing morally.

I don't understand this 'diplomacy skill' you're talking about, Wardlow has ALWAYS been an employee of MJF, he's never been treated as one of the boys like Spears or FTR. He's a bodyguard/mercenary through and through, which makes his 'heelness' have a different nature to it, because he's just doing it for the money and just happens to work for someone immoral.

MJF counters with the following: FTR vs. Punk and any partner of his choosing other than Darby or Sting tonight, and if Punk’s team wins, Punk gets MJF, anywhere, anytime, in any match of his choosing. I’m ALMOST okay with this as something that Punk would accept instead of just delivering the promised beating to the Pinnacle, except for this one problem: WHY DOESN’T TONY KHAN JUST BOOK PUNK VS. MJF?!

He already did, last week, you reviewed it. MJF won twice. Khan has no obligation to book it again, nor is MJF obliged to give Punk the match.

MJF was willing to offer this because he doesn’t think Punk will be able to find a partner because “good luck finding someone in the back who doesn’t hate your guts.” Do people hate Punk? I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence of this other than the non-injured Eddie Kingston. Either this isn’t true, so MJF is an idiot, or it is true, and Punk is being foolish by agreeing to this instead of just going nuts with the baseball bats.
Also, props to Dax Hardwood for admitting that he looked pretty terrible in that suit, and even more props to him for turning it into a big positive for his character.

Kingston said it, "nobody wants you here" but no one had the guts to tell him. A lot of people do hate Punk, a minute on Twitter will confirm that for you. Even if MJF knew Punk would find someone, making him go through the trouble finding someone doesn't make him an idiot, he knows Punk won't have much time to concentrate and then team with someone that he may not have a lot of history with, and still take on a 'natural' tag team in FTR.

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH STING, DARBY ALLIN, & ANDRADE EL IDOLO (& JOSE THE ASSISTANT) FACE TO FACE (TO FACE TO FACE, I GUESS)- good performances, but I just don’t get why any of this is happening.
Sting and Darby reiterate that Darby is not Sting’s servant. Darby says he has better things to do than work for Andrade, such as regain the TNT Title. Andrade says that Darby “wants” the title, but he himself will be the next champion. So does Andrade want to hire Darby to remove him as competition for the title?

One thing doesn't have to do anything with the other. Andrade just wants a young boy and only now did he found out they both want the TNT title.

INNER CIRCLE “TEAM MEETING”- Once again: EXCELLENT performances, but the story just doesn’t work!
Okay, let’s get the easy thing out of the way first: Sammy. In addition to what I mentioned above about him calling them a family and then saying he would leave them because he thought their drama would hurt his professional aspirations, there is the simple fact that Sammy regained his TNT Title while Jericho and LAX have been bickering, so it really doesn’t seem to have hurt him yet at all.

Nothing wrong with Sammy's motivation. The actual separation happened on this show, he didn't need to worry about it prior to now where he was clearly, kinda forced to pick a side and he's definitely playing neutral. Before this, he knew there were problems, but he hadn't been dragged into it, but now he knows that he's going to get dragged into dealing with either party while also trying to concentrate on defending the title. It made perfect sense to me.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH ROPPONGI VICE IS INTERRUPTED BY THE YOUNG BUCKS- meh
They (and Cole) jump Roppongi Vice. This would have worked a lot better for me if Roppongi Vice and the Bucks hadn’t come off so goofy, and if the BTE-Trigger that the Bucks gave Rocky hadn’t looked so bad.
Jay White showed up, so they gave him the honor of being the one to throw Trent into the production truck. Introducing Jay White like this took the focus off of the Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice match on Rampage.
Excalibur shouted about how “JAY WHITE HAS WALKED THROUGH THE FORBIDDEN DOOR!” Is it really a “forbidden” door at this point? He’s like the seventh guy from New Japan to show up. I’m also just not excited about Jay White in AEW because there’s no room for him.

The whole reason why he's even here is because people keep taking the whole 'Forbidden Door' thing literally and can't just realize that it's more of a catchword to promote a debut. Next thing people are gonna start complaining "umm, actually, it wasn't a door because he was outside and didn't cross any doors, it was more of a 'gate'".

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION LADDER MATCH QUALIFYING MATCH: Isiah Kassdy (w/Matt Hardy & Marq Quen) vs. Keith Lee- mostly an awesome squash, except for the part that ruined it.
See… this is exactly the problem. Keith Lee needs the time and attention right now, and any time and attention spent on Jay White is time that can’t be spent on Keith Lee.
Excalibur claimed that this was the “first-ever Face of the Revolution Ladder match qualifier,” which is certainly is not, as they did some qualifiers last year.
Anyway, the match started out as the PERFECT Keith Lee debut match, showing off his power, agility, and attitude. Matt Hardy was so disgusted that he walked out on Private Party.
And then someone had to ruin it by deciding that Isiah Kassidy needed to get offense in on Keith Lee in Keith Lee’s debut. And in a match where they were having Matt walk out on Private Party because of their inability to win! Having Kassidy get offense in on Lee is counter-productive to everything they tried to do!

Is it really that hard to pay attention to two different things? Dragon and Cole debuted minutes from each other and they were both fantastic. It's not like White interrupted Lee or vice versa. If anything else, Lee's debut should had been shorter, dude looked slow as fuck.
Also, it was just a little hope spot, Lee never lost control of the match, and it took Quen's involvement, there is nothing wrong with this, otherwise you'd be complaining that a contender to the ladder match was a total geek and got totally squashed.

AEW TBS TITLE MATCH: Jade Cargill(c) (w/Mark Sterling) vs. A.Q.A.- 4.75/10
A.Q.A. cut an inset promo that was good, but I can’t help but ask why the hell this debuting nobody is getting a title shot when we have an official list of ranked contenders. It’s even more ridiculous in light of what the next match would be. Tony Khan needed matches for Cargill and Deeb, and instead of booking them against each other in a title match, he books them both against nobodies and lets Deeb do a gimmick where the match has a five-minute time limit? What a moron!

Are you seriously calling a moron for booking two squash matches instead of what should eventually be a big match? Booking them against each other now would be universes beyond moronic!

ADAM COLE & THE YOUNG BUCKS PROMO- meh
Do the wrestlers not keep themselves abreast of industry news? They start to look silly when the internet knows who is going to debut but the wrestlers don’t, and this just brought that into kayfabe.

I mean, you don't read twitter or reddit, why would they? Seems like it be something that some people would and some wouldn't, you know, like normal human beings, and by all means, nothing on the internet is confirmed until it actually happens or is announced by TK, and even then, things may always fall through.

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- good promos, bad everything else
Wardlow has been ordered to carry cardboard cut-outs of MJF beating CM Punk to the ring. Also, everyone else in the group gets an entrance, but Wardlow doesn’t get an entrance. Because now that they want to do an angle where he will turn on MJF, MJF has suddenly lost aa diplomatic skill. Explain to me how this is “good storytelling.”
The announcers, of course, are so outraged about Wardlow’s mistreatment… and as a result, are completely ignoring the fact that Wardlow fully went along with MJF’s plan last week and helped him cheat to screw CM Punk out of the match.
MJF got an elaborate ring introduction which Justin Roberts was ordered to give, and was carried to the ring on a throne. There were women to make out with him. Then he and his pals did a big end-zone dance together, to which Wardlow was either not invited (because MJF has magically lost his previously-shown diplomatic skill) or because he was feeling guilty over screwing CM Punk out of a match, even though he has no attachment to the guy. “SToRyteLLiNg.”
MJF gives a big speech in which he builds it up as if he’s going to thank Wardlow and credit him with the win, but then he swerves the viewers (by which I mean everyone but Wardlow himself and the announcers) by giving credit to Spears instead for warming him up.
MJF and Spears go on for a while until Punk interrupts them. He says he has learned from his mistakes and has now gotten himself some friends in the form of Darby Allin and Sting, armed with baseball bats. Punk says he wants a rematch. MJF says “no,” but Punk clarifies that he was talking to Wardlow, who he claims no one in the Pinnacle would have won a match in the past six months without. He also tells Wardlow that he can get the beating that the rest of the Pinnacle are about to receive, or he can “grow some balls and leave these jerks.”
I’m sorry, but Wardlow is way too far on the heel side of the line for me to be okay with Punk letting him off the hook the way he seems to be. The dude is a heel. This whole “babyface push” of his started with him winning matches via what was pretty much excessive punishment, and at every single turn, he has down the wrong thing morally.

I don't understand this 'diplomacy skill' you're talking about, Wardlow has ALWAYS been an employee of MJF, he's never been treated as one of the boys like Spears or FTR. He's a bodyguard/mercenary through and through, which makes his 'heelness' have a different nature to it, because he's just doing it for the money and just happens to work for someone immoral.

Look at MJF during the Inner Circle angle. He was acutely aware of everyone's emotions. Here, he seems to be deliberately doing things to provoke Wardlow. Whether Wardlow is one of the boys or not, there is no reason for MJF to treat him like sh*t. It doesn't gain MJF anything. He should be- and has, in almost all other situations, shown himself to be - smarter than this. Thus, his behavior towards Wardlow feels like it is happen just for the sake of enabling a storyline where Wardlow turns on him.

I agree that the nature of Wardlow's heelishness is different due to him being a mercenary, but once you have that moral epiphany (which the announcers pushed that Wardlow did in the Punk match, where it made no sense), you can't just keep helping the heel cheat while he treats you like sh*t if your relationship to the heel is merely employer/employee. If he was MJF's brother or something like that where he was worried about hurting his feelings, or had some sort of reason to be loyal to him like Necro Butcher with Jimmy Jacobs in the AOTF, that would be one thing, but that's not the situation here, and especially because there seem to be no consequences whatsoever if Wardlow quits. If he's such a great wrestler, wouldn't Tony Khan just sign him to a contract (which will surely be a fair contract, and thus put him in a much better situation than he is in now)?

MJF counters with the following: FTR vs. Punk and any partner of his choosing other than Darby or Sting tonight, and if Punk’s team wins, Punk gets MJF, anywhere, anytime, in any match of his choosing. I’m ALMOST okay with this as something that Punk would accept instead of just delivering the promised beating to the Pinnacle, except for this one problem: WHY DOESN’T TONY KHAN JUST BOOK PUNK VS. MJF?!

He already did, last week, you reviewed it. MJF won twice. Khan has no obligation to book it again, nor is MJF obliged to give Punk the match.

The wins were tainted. MJF cheated both times. Tony should want a fair match that is won cleanly.
The idea of Tony needing MJF's approval to book the match opens up a can of worms about how contracts work.

MJF was willing to offer this because he doesn’t think Punk will be able to find a partner because “good luck finding someone in the back who doesn’t hate your guts.” Do people hate Punk? I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence of this other than the non-injured Eddie Kingston. Either this isn’t true, so MJF is an idiot, or it is true, and Punk is being foolish by agreeing to this instead of just going nuts with the baseball bats.
Also, props to Dax Hardwood for admitting that he looked pretty terrible in that suit, and even more props to him for turning it into a big positive for his character.

Kingston said it, "nobody wants you here" but no one had the guts to tell him. A lot of people do hate Punk, a minute on Twitter will confirm that for you. Even if MJF knew Punk would find someone, making him go through the trouble finding someone doesn't make him an idiot, he knows Punk won't have much time to concentrate and then team with someone that he may not have a lot of history with, and still take on a 'natural' tag team in FTR.

Are we supposed to believe that what Kingston said is kayfabe true? I don't see any evidence for that. Kingston is the only babyface we've ever seen have a negative interaction with Punk... and Kingston has had negative interactions with most of the babyfaces he has come into contact with (not all his fault, to be sure, but it's a pattern).

Fair point about the natural team chemistry, but that's not what they specifically put the focus on.
You can't use Twitter as kayfabe, or else you have to use all of Twitter as kayfabe.

TONY SCHIAVONE IS BACKSTAGE WITH STING, DARBY ALLIN, & ANDRADE EL IDOLO (& JOSE THE ASSISTANT) FACE TO FACE (TO FACE TO FACE, I GUESS)- good performances, but I just don’t get why any of this is happening.
Sting and Darby reiterate that Darby is not Sting’s servant. Darby says he has better things to do than work for Andrade, such as regain the TNT Title. Andrade says that Darby “wants” the title, but he himself will be the next champion. So does Andrade want to hire Darby to remove him as competition for the title?

One thing doesn't have to do anything with the other. Andrade just wants a young boy and only now did he found out they both want the TNT title.

I wasn't criticizing the kayfabe logic here so much as the overall booking logic. It feels like whatever they are doing here is taking forever and going in circles rather than moving forward towards a goal.

Also, doesn't Jose function as his young-boy?

INNER CIRCLE “TEAM MEETING”- Once again: EXCELLENT performances, but the story just doesn’t work!
Okay, let’s get the easy thing out of the way first: Sammy. In addition to what I mentioned above about him calling them a family and then saying he would leave them because he thought their drama would hurt his professional aspirations, there is the simple fact that Sammy regained his TNT Title while Jericho and LAX have been bickering, so it really doesn’t seem to have hurt him yet at all.

Nothing wrong with Sammy's motivation. The actual separation happened on this show, he didn't need to worry about it prior to now where he was clearly, kinda forced to pick a side and he's definitely playing neutral. Before this, he knew there were problems, but he hadn't been dragged into it, but now he knows that he's going to get dragged into dealing with either party while also trying to concentrate on defending the title. It made perfect sense to me.

You can't say "I love you like family" and then just quit to focus on your career. It comes across bad. If he had just said "if you're going to bicker like this, I don't want to be a part of it" and quit, that would be fine. The issue was the "I don't want focusing on your arguing to make me lose my title" part. It came across as selfishness rather than righteous indigence.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH ROPPONGI VICE IS INTERRUPTED BY THE YOUNG BUCKS- meh
They (and Cole) jump Roppongi Vice. This would have worked a lot better for me if Roppongi Vice and the Bucks hadn’t come off so goofy, and if the BTE-Trigger that the Bucks gave Rocky hadn’t looked so bad.
Jay White showed up, so they gave him the honor of being the one to throw Trent into the production truck. Introducing Jay White like this took the focus off of the Bucks vs. Roppongi Vice match on Rampage.
Excalibur shouted about how “JAY WHITE HAS WALKED THROUGH THE FORBIDDEN DOOR!” Is it really a “forbidden” door at this point? He’s like the seventh guy from New Japan to show up. I’m also just not excited about Jay White in AEW because there’s no room for him.

The whole reason why he's even here is because people keep taking the whole 'Forbidden Door' thing literally and can't just realize that it's more of a catchword to promote a debut. Next thing people are gonna start complaining "umm, actually, it wasn't a door because he was outside and didn't cross any doors, it was more of a 'gate'".

Ah-ah. Not buying it.
1. The "forbidden door" has been used to promote people who were- and still are- under contract to other companies coming in. Tony himself confirmed this this week by explaining that he only brought White in because he accidentally screwed up his own definition of "forbidden door" when hyping the Keith Lee debut:


2. This is at least the second time you've changed the definition of "Forbidden Door." At one point you were saying it was Tony. Just admit that whatever definition they have has been screwed up and is murky and move on.

3. Maybe it maybe sense if/when it was referring to the concept of doing an angle on two promotions' TV at the same time, but whatever it once was, the whole thing, at this point in the company's existence, is f*cking stupid. It's cleanly not "forbidden" anymore if you're the twelfth person to walk through it.

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION LADDER MATCH QUALIFYING MATCH: Isiah Kassdy (w/Matt Hardy & Marq Quen) vs. Keith Lee- mostly an awesome squash, except for the part that ruined it.
See… this is exactly the problem. Keith Lee needs the time and attention right now, and any time and attention spent on Jay White is time that can’t be spent on Keith Lee.
Excalibur claimed that this was the “first-ever Face of the Revolution Ladder match qualifier,” which is certainly is not, as they did some qualifiers last year.
Anyway, the match started out as the PERFECT Keith Lee debut match, showing off his power, agility, and attitude. Matt Hardy was so disgusted that he walked out on Private Party.
And then someone had to ruin it by deciding that Isiah Kassidy needed to get offense in on Keith Lee in Keith Lee’s debut. And in a match where they were having Matt walk out on Private Party because of their inability to win! Having Kassidy get offense in on Lee is counter-productive to everything they tried to do!

Is it really that hard to pay attention to two different things? Dragon and Cole debuted minutes from each other and they were both fantastic. It's not like White interrupted Lee or vice versa. If anything else, Lee's debut should had been shorter, dude looked slow as fuck.
Also, it was just a little hope spot, Lee never lost control of the match, and it took Quen's involvement, there is nothing wrong with this, otherwise you'd be complaining that a contender to the ladder match was a total geek and got totally squashed.

1. Heels don't get hope spots! There is nothing for us to hope for.
2. You shouldn't be doing a hope spot in a squash!

As for the attention thing, it's not a matter of attention span. It's a matter of a finite amount of TV time existing.
Over the course of the average week, they need to feature the following people:
Dragon
Mox
Page
Archer
Punk
MJF & Wardlow (& Spears)
FTR
Jericho
Sammy
LAX
Cody
Lee
Men of the Year
Cargill
Jurassic Express & Christian
Darby and Sting
Cole
Bucks
reDragon
Cody
Team Taz
Dante Martin (& Matt Sydal) & Lio Rush, if he is still under contract
Jay Lethal
Miro
Britt Baker (& friends)
Kris Statlander
Leyla Hirsch
Thunder Rosa
Mercedes Martinez
Best Friends & Orange Cassidy
Kings of the Black Throne
Death Triangle
Jade Cargill
Andrade/Matt Hardy/AHFO
Varsity Blondes/Julia Hart
Ruby Riott
Nyla Rose
Tay-Jay
Penelope Ford & The Bunny
The Acclaimed
Daniel Garcia & 2.0
Jake Hager
Kazarian
Fuego del Sol
The Dark Order
Hikaru Shida
Serena Deeb
A.Q.A.
Red Velvet
Hook
Gunn Club

And that's not including, Kenny Omega, Eddie Kingston, Fenix, Jake Atlas, and Riho, who are injured, and it's also not including people like Dustin Rhodes (who has a place, but it's really as part of the past rather than someone who needs to be featured for the sake of the future), people like Brian Cage, Kip Sabian, Jack Evans, and Angelico, who seem to have been written out, some of the role-player joshis (Sakura, Sakazaki) and some of the people who are signed and have potential but haven't actually gotten any sort of push or attention (Tony Nese, Kiera Hogan, J.D. Drake, Cezar Bononi), and it's not even including some of the younger/greener guys who they clearly WANT to build up at some point (Brock Anderson, Lee Johnson, and to a lesser extent the Factory).

(And, yes, I left Dorkhausen off the list on purpose)

Yes, not everyone needs to be on TV every week, but every week that you're not on TV, you lose momentum. Remember when Daniel Garcia was being built up? Or Dante Martin? Where have they been lately? How about Miro? Bunelope? I think AEW has generally done a good job keeping hot acts feeling like they have a TV presence while slow-rolling their stories (the Penta video package on TV this week was a great example of that, as it got not jut him but also Pac and the Kings of the Black Throne on), but you only have three hours of TV a week and people will only stand for PPVs going so long before they start to get annoyed. There just isn't enough time for everyone.

AEW TBS TITLE MATCH: Jade Cargill(c) (w/Mark Sterling) vs. A.Q.A.- 4.75/10
A.Q.A. cut an inset promo that was good, but I can’t help but ask why the hell this debuting nobody is getting a title shot when we have an official list of ranked contenders. It’s even more ridiculous in light of what the next match would be. Tony Khan needed matches for Cargill and Deeb, and instead of booking them against each other in a title match, he books them both against nobodies and lets Deeb do a gimmick where the match has a five-minute time limit? What a moron!

Are you seriously calling a moron for booking two squash matches instead of what should eventually be a big match? Booking them against each other now would be universes beyond moronic!

Out of kayfabe, you're correct. But in kayfabe, why is this nobody getting a title shot when Deeb has been winning her matches and is ranked #3, and Deeb is stuck wrestling some other nobody. If you're going to tout your promotion as wins and losses mattering, you have to make them matter all the time. You can't ignore them when they're not convenient for what you want to do.

ADAM COLE & THE YOUNG BUCKS PROMO- meh
Do the wrestlers not keep themselves abreast of industry news? They start to look silly when the internet knows who is going to debut but the wrestlers don’t, and this just brought that into kayfabe.

I mean, you don't read twitter or reddit, why would they? Seems like it be something that some people would and some wouldn't, you know, like normal human beings, and by all means, nothing on the internet is confirmed until it actually happens or is announced by TK, and even then, things may always fall through.

Because they're professionals and it's their life/business?
I agree with the general gist of what you're saying, but it seems odd to me that the internet would know about rumors of a big star who the Bucks used to be in a stable with coming to AEW and the Bucks wouldn't have heard about it. Even if they don't do Twitter themselves (which I assume they do), surely someone would have said something to them, right? Especially seeing as how they are EVPs of the company.

[Thelone]

Granted the MJF segment and some of the matches were really good, Keith Lee and Jay White debuts were cool, a lot of the other stuff were filler and the storylines were incoherent a lot of times. I don't understand how people rate this as one of the best Dynamite episodes to date. It felt like I was watching WWE lite.

THE GREATEST NIGHT IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT!!!

The "Forbidden Door" term has lost its steam and it's laughable how much AEW and Tony Khan is squeezing it out considering it was a phrase just casually thrown by Tanahashi over two years ago which I believe was originally translated from Japanese. It makes them look so desperate. The standards of wrestling fans are so low.

This "Forbidden Door™" shit is just as bad as most WWE-isms out there that they repeat ad nauseam. At this point, the only way this term would make sense is if someone who's currently signed to WWE appears on Dynamite.

Why was Page vs Archer a Texas Deathmatch? What about the booking or the feud meant that it could only be decided in such a way? It's another example of having an unnecessary stipulation on a World Title match just because. Terrible booking.

Long term storytelling or something, totally not "we can't book champions for shit".

[Big Red Machine]

Why was Page vs Archer a Texas Deathmatch? What about the booking or the feud meant that it could only be decided in such a way? It's another example of having an unnecessary stipulation on a World Title match just because. Terrible booking.

Long term storytelling or something, totally not "we can't book champions for shit".

I wouldn't say this is booking the champion poorly so much as just rushing the feud. It's not good, but you're misdiagnosing the problem.

[Thelone]

I wouldn't say this is booking the champion poorly so much as just rushing the feud. It's not good, but you're misdiagnosing the problem.

Khan is atrocious at making the challenger's chase and title reign compelling.

What did Baker do since she won the belt *checks* almost NINE MONTHS AGO? Faced tomato cans no one bought.
What did Rosa do since Dentist Girl is champion? Mostly relegated to Youtube.

Jurassic Express is banished on Rampage with Daddy Christian, but still facing tomato cans no one buys.

Jade... well you know the drill by now.

Sammy The Tongue Man, if you remove the Cody... experiment (the Cody Rub is much stronger than Miro's obviously), is also facing a bunch of guys no one buys.

Page lost any kind of steam he had left after that abortion of an """epic storyline""" and will now be facing Atom Cole, who just lost by a nice hug to local clown OC, at the PPV.

I get what you're saying about this "feud" with Archer being rushed, but there was no feud here and AEW just borrowed a page (no pun intended) from the NJPW playbook with "wrestler X came out first during a promo, so he's the next challenger now". They just threw the random stipulation in there because... that sounded cooler or something I guess.

[Big Red Machine]

I wouldn't say this is booking the champion poorly so much as just rushing the feud. It's not good, but you're misdiagnosing the problem.

Khan is atrocious at making the challenger's chase and title reign compelling.

What did Baker do since she won the belt *checks* almost NINE MONTHS AGO? Faced tomato cans no one bought.
What did Rosa do since Dentist Girl is champion? Mostly relegated to Youtube.

Jurassic Express is banished on Rampage with Daddy Christian, but still facing tomato cans no one buys.

Jade... well you know the drill by now.

Sammy The Tongue Man, if you remove the Cody... experiment (the Cody Rub is much stronger than Miro's obviously), is also facing a bunch of guys no one buys.

Page lost any kind of steam he had left after that abortion of an """epic storyline""" and will now be facing Atom Cole, who just lost by a nice hug to local clown OC, at the PPV.

I get what you're saying about this "feud" with Archer being rushed, but there was no feud here and AEW just borrowed a page (no pun intended) from the NJPW playbook with "wrestler X came out first during a promo, so he's the next challenger now". They just threw the random stipulation in there because... that sounded cooler or something I guess.

Does anyone think Gunn Club (or Private Party before them) have a shot at beating Jurassic Express? No. But I don't think calling them tomato cans is fair. They HAVE been winning. It's bad booking on Tony's part to not feature them before the title match story starts, but they did earn the shots.

The other criticisms you mentioned are legitimate criticisms of the booking, but I don't think anyone has looked like a weak champion. Non-compelling? Yes. But not weak.
With Britt in particular, though, the real problem is that we all knew she wasn't dropping the belt before defending against Thunder Rosa (and I think pretty much every assumes that Thunder Rosa is the one who will take it from her), and as smarks/internet fans/whatever, it's hard for us not to see that. Without that complication, I think Britt's other big defenses (particularly Ruby Soho and the Shida rematch, but maybe Statlander, too) feel more important.

I think the PPV schedule is also hurting them, because Tony's philosophy is to avoid giving away what feel like potentially really big title matches on TV. This is an issue not just because of the quarterly PPVs, but also because of the way they have them clustered (they've got two in three months, then three months off, then two in three months, and then three months off, instead of just one every three months) and in the big gaps, people lose momentum because he's trying not to give away big matches (although he did do so with Page and Danielson).

And yes, I realize that all of these things are ultimately Tony's fault because they stem from decisions he is making. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the actual mechanics of his booking the titles are that bad, even in terms of building up the challengers (aside from with the secondary titles, and I think the whole idea with those is that he wants to have them defended often to try to elevate the champions).

[Thelone]

Does anyone think Gunn Club (or Private Party before them) have a shot at beating Jurassic Express? No. But I don't think calling them tomato cans is fair. They HAVE been winning. It's bad booking on Tony's part to not feature them before the title match story starts, but they did earn the shots.

Even if we're counting Youtube wins that really shouldn't, the Gunn Kids don't have that impressive of a tag record. They're only 7-0 over more than a year, and their "biggest" win was against Brock Anderson and Lee Johnson. The issue is that without those online wins, they're... 0-0.

The other criticisms you mentioned are legitimate criticisms of the booking, but I don't think anyone has looked like a weak champion. Non-compelling? Yes. But not weak.

I guess it depends on what you consider "weak". Yeah, no champion has been made to lose non-title matches constantly and win title matches with copious cheating, but then why would you when almost all challengers are so beneath you? There is no drama, it's just "cold matches against unworthy challengers until the obvious title change".

With Britt in particular, though, the real problem is that we all knew she wasn't dropping the belt before defending against Thunder Rosa (and I think pretty much every assumes that Thunder Rosa is the one who will take it from her), and as smarks/internet fans/whatever, it's hard for us not to see that. Without that complication, I think Britt's other big defenses (particularly Ruby Soho and the Shida rematch, but maybe Statlander, too) feel more important.

It's been an issue with every champion in the promotion so far, not just Baker.

I think the PPV schedule is also hurting them, because Tony's philosophy is to avoid giving away what feel like potentially really big title matches on TV. This is an issue not just because of the quarterly PPVs, but also because of the way they have them clustered (they've got two in three months, then three months off, then two in three months, and then three months off, instead of just one every three months) and in the big gaps, people lose momentum because he's trying not to give away big matches (although he did do so with Page and Danielson).

It feels like their PPVs are always thrown together at the last second. They probably aren't, but the build-ups are always so poor that they came off that way more often than not.

And yes, I realize that all of these things are ultimately Tony's fault because they stem from decisions he is making. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the actual mechanics of his booking the titles are that bad, even in terms of building up the challengers (aside from with the secondary titles, and I think the whole idea with those is that he wants to have them defended often to try to elevate the champions).

I don't know how to explain it, but Khan is trying to not make some mistakes, but it's almost to a comical degree and it creates new problems as well. Look at Miro and Cole : he didn't want to throw them immediately in the title mix, which is perfectly fine, but he instead threw them in shitty comedy storylines that killed most of their momentum. Only then he started to push them towards a title match with the same "PUTTING THE WHOLE LOCKER ROOM ON NOTICE™" promo and suddenly being serious after months of dumb shit.

[Big Red Machine]

Does anyone think Gunn Club (or Private Party before them) have a shot at beating Jurassic Express? No. But I don't think calling them tomato cans is fair. They HAVE been winning. It's bad booking on Tony's part to not feature them before the title match story starts, but they did earn the shots.

Even if we're counting Youtube wins that really shouldn't, the Gunn Kids don't have that impressive of a tag record. They're only 7-0 over more than a year, and their "biggest" win was against Brock Anderson and Lee Johnson. The issue is that without those online wins, they're... 0-0.

I think you have to play by the promotion's rules with this sort of thing. You can't just say that the wins didn't happen. Tony's mistake is not putting a few of them on TV so that them being a top-ranked team doesn't feel like an ass-pull and so that they have some momentum.

And yeah, they should have been given a win over at least one bigger team. Looking at the roster, AEW really doesn't have a team in that Private Party "the most undercard you can be while still feeling like you have credibility" on the babyface side. That said, I don't have too much of a logical problem with any 7-0 record being converted into a title shot on a small show, even if most of it is against jobbers.

The other criticisms you mentioned are legitimate criticisms of the booking, but I don't think anyone has looked like a weak champion. Non-compelling? Yes. But not weak.

I guess it depends on what you consider "weak". Yeah, no champion has been made to lose non-title matches constantly and win title matches with copious cheating, but then why would you when almost all challengers are so beneath you? There is no drama, it's just "cold matches against unworthy challengers until the obvious title change".

I don't think that's the case with anyone other than Sammy and maybe Jade, but even with Jade, they did build Anna Jay up a bit first, and also in Jade's case, I'm a little more lenient because it's clear that they are trying to establish the new title and thus need it visible, but also it's hard to give, say Ruby Soho a shot at a title where Ruby just lost cleanly in a tournament for it. Pulling the trigger on this Statlander/Leyla Hirsch story when they did was probably a mistake, as that took away to or three potential challengers for this belt (Red Velvet wound up as a casualty of that feud to get Hirsch over as well).

With Britt in particular, though, the real problem is that we all knew she wasn't dropping the belt before defending against Thunder Rosa (and I think pretty much every assumes that Thunder Rosa is the one who will take it from her), and as smarks/internet fans/whatever, it's hard for us not to see that. Without that complication, I think Britt's other big defenses (particularly Ruby Soho and the Shida rematch, but maybe Statlander, too) feel more important.

It's been an issue with every champion in the promotion so far, not just Baker.

I disagree. Other than maybe Omega, I don't think anyone has ever had so clean an end-point, and even with Omega, Danielson showing up made it murky.

I think the PPV schedule is also hurting them, because Tony's philosophy is to avoid giving away what feel like potentially really big title matches on TV. This is an issue not just because of the quarterly PPVs, but also because of the way they have them clustered (they've got two in three months, then three months off, then two in three months, and then three months off, instead of just one every three months) and in the big gaps, people lose momentum because he's trying not to give away big matches (although he did do so with Page and Danielson).

It feels like their PPVs are always thrown together at the last second. They probably aren't, but the build-ups are always so poor that they came off that way more often than not.

And yes, I realize that all of these things are ultimately Tony's fault because they stem from decisions he is making. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the actual mechanics of his booking the titles are that bad, even in terms of building up the challengers (aside from with the secondary titles, and I think the whole idea with those is that he wants to have them defended often to try to elevate the champions).

I don't know how to explain it, but Khan is trying to not make some mistakes, but it's almost to a comical degree and it creates new problems as well. Look at Miro and Cole : he didn't want to throw them immediately in the title mix, which is perfectly fine, but he instead threw them in shitty comedy storylines that killed most of their momentum. Only then he started to push them towards a title match with the same "PUTTING THE WHOLE LOCKER ROOM ON NOTICE™" promo and suddenly being serious after months of dumb shit.

I think your point about the PPVs is mostly fair, but I think the real culprit has been the mistake of having such a big roster (and, now that we have five titles, I see that being an issue, too).

I think the Miro thing has aged well in hindsight, as I think the turn itself and some of the stuff he did right after it did a great job of getting him over as a little more unhinged than if you had just introduced him as a big, scary, dangerous guy (which was, at the same time, getting Lance Archer nowhere), which I think made the "G-d's favorite champion" stuff and his direction after losing the title feel more believable.

With Cole, I can't argue that he has lost momentum, having him lose to OC was terrible. That being said, I'm having trouble thinking of anyone else on the roster who as in an appropriate spot for Cole to have been feuding with after the Jurassic Express/Christian feud ended instead of the Goof Patrol.
Punk was feuding with MJF (and that's one you definitely want to save for a PPV), Moxley was unavailable, Jericho and Kingston were both involved in their story, which needs to start when it starts if the plan is to break LAX off from the Inner Circle soon), Lucha Bros. were doing tag-champ stuff, Cody was doing... Cody stuff, Dante is involved with Team Taz and his friend group seems to shift way too much for any consistency of partners, and you need the partners so that Cole isn't accumulating singles wins too quickly),
There is Darby/Sting, I guess, (and they make a good foil for whatever distrust there is between Cole/reDragon/Bucks/Omega), but if you're trying to build that distrust story up, I think you really do need a group with multiple combinations to work against in big tags, and Darby and Sting are only two, and it'd be weird to have Cole team with just one Buck while the other sits out (though a little less weird to have him team with just one member of reDRagon). And Goof Patrol have a female to counter Britt (and Britt has felt like an important piece in pushing Cole and the Bucks away from each other).

It's totally fair to say Tony is to blame for not having an appropriate babyface act ready (personally, I would have put off the LAX/Jericho/Kingston thing and done Cole & Friends vs. Inner Circle, with Cole vs. Jericho as the centerpiece), but I don't think it's quite that easy (and especially when I assume the stuff with Cole/Bucks/reDRagon/Jay White/etc. is on a timetable where it has to be at a certain point by the time Omega returns)

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I think Tony's major mistakes have usually been either big-picture timeline things (taking too long to get back to Britt vs Thunder Rosa, not following up well with Page or Danielson or Miro), meta decisions (having too large a roster and trying to feature too many people, resulting in people losing moment and some big matches or title challengers not being built up enough) tonal things (comedy in blood feuds) or detail issues (the logical things I talk about all the time) rather than the sort of out-and-out incompetence we've seen from many others.
I think he generally has a good head on his shoulders, and has a much better idea of what "works" to get people over than current Vince, and he's not stuck in the past the way Cornette (stylistically) or Bischoff (in terms of star-power) have been, and he doesn't flail around desperately like Delirious. I think he 1) hasn't yet had the time to learn enough to realize the big-picture mistakes he is making, and 2) needs a detail guy to edit things for him (both big picture and little picture).

I hope I'm making sense with that.

[Big Red Machine]

The "Forbidden Door" term has lost its steam and it's laughable how much AEW and Tony Khan is squeezing it out considering it was a phrase just casually thrown by Tanahashi over two years ago which I believe was originally translated from Japanese. It makes them look so desperate. The standards of wrestling fans are so low.

This "Forbidden Door™" shit is just as bad as most WWE-isms out there that they repeat ad nauseam. At this point, the only way this term would make sense is if someone who's currently signed to WWE appears on Dynamite.

I really wish their fans turn on this and call them out. That way they will be forced to do better.

I'm not saying it's not dumb, but a big part of the WWE thing is that there are so many of them. "Forbidden Door" is the only one AEW has, and it's not so much that it was pointless and dumb in the first place as much as it has just outlived its effectiveness at this point.