BRM Reviews the 2/23/2022 Dynamite (the usual mixed bag)

[Big Red Machine]

TAG BATTLE ROYAL FOR A SPOT IN THE AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH AT REVOLUTION 2022- 6.25/10
We started the show off with all of the teams on the outside, and then Jurassic Express (& Christian) got to make an entrance, which I thought needlessly made everyone else look less important. And it’s not like they even did commentary, either. They just sat in office chairs on the ramp and watched.
I’m not going to try to tell you that this match didn’t have a lot of good action in it (and that is reflected in my rating), but there was also a lot of stuff in here that found extremely frustrating. It started with them ringing the bell while everyone was still on the outside. That had me worried that they were bringing back the Reverse Battle Royale. I mean really! How can you ring the bell to start the match when everyone involved in the match is currently standing out of bounds, in the area where they would theoretically lose the match for standing?! Would it really have been that hard to start out with everyone in the ring like normal?
The Butcher is back from… wherever he has been. Injured, maybe? It’d sure be nice if his absence had been explained or commented on in any way. The Blade eliminated Alex Reynolds… and then just stopped and posed for what felt like ten minutes, in order to facilitate John Silver coming up behind him and eliminating him. Can we please not do this cartoonish bullsh*t?
Then dumbf*ck John Silver made the exact same mistake that The Blade had made. He was lucky he only got glommed from behind by Gunn Club instead of being eliminated. Then the Gunns posed so that LAX could come up behind them. One of them got there first… and then noticed that his partner wasn’t there, so he went and beat someone else up until his partner was ready, while the Gunns stood there posing the whole time. This sort of sh*t makes the whole thing feel fake. I hate it.
Gunn Club were then eliminated in a way that made them look stupid. Is Tony’s goal here to have everyone look like an idiot? You can add Isiah Kassidy to that list, too. I guess it didn’t make him look stupid so much as it was just pointless comedic, but the point is that it made Private Party and Matt Hardy feel like jokes when there was no need to do that.
Matt “walked out on” Private Party after they were eliminated. The tag team division could use some more babyfaces right now and Private Party’s style makes them a good choice to turn, but having that turn come because Matt Hardy gives up on them because they’re losers is not a good way to do it.
The big moment here was the Bucks and FTR having a stare-down, but before anything could happen, reDRagon attacked FTR from behind, and the Bucks and reDRagon were able to work together.
We got down to the Bucks, reDRagon, FTR, and the remaining singles of John Silver and Santana, who were also the only babyfaces left. Santana is in the middle of an angle that you would think is designed to give LAX a big push as babyfaces by making Jerico the heel against them… and the fans are chanting for comedy goof John Silver, who has barely been on TV recently and hasn’t been pushed at all.
Nick Jackson saved Kyle O’Reilly from FTR, but then FTR eliminated him.
Oh. Apparently Trent Baretta is still in the match. FTR threw him out. He started to skin the cat, but was having trouble… and Orange Cassidy just happened to have been hanging out under the ring in the exact right spot to cheat to help his friend avoid elimination with the same stupid technicality that everyone HATES when WWE does it. Everything in that paragraph is something that needs to not happen. So many kinds of pointless, stupid bullsh*t.
Trent got to run wild on reDRagon and eliminate Bobby Fish. Not sure how that helps any sort of story, but whatever. FTR then went after Trent, and Trent got to spend a good chunk of the commercial break taking it to them on his own as well.
Tully tried to help pull John Silver over the top rope right in front of TWO referees, and he wasn’t ejected from ringside. Then he literally told the referees to go over there, and they did… and he’s right back to trying to pull Silver out again. Johnny the Clown was able to turned this around and eliminated Cash. Cash tried to get back into the ring, but Bryce Remsburg grabbed his arm and yelled at him to get to the back, and Cash complied. What he’s going to do? Disqualify Dax? From both Tully and Orange Cassidy’s interferences, we’ve clearly seen that the referees aren’t going to disqualify anyone, so why not just run in?
This tag team battle royale for a shot at the tag titles came down to six single wrestlers (Trent, O’Reilly, Santana, Matt Jackson, John Silver, and Dax Harwood). Trent and Santana had a big segment together (with the crowd almost totally behind Santana). They wound up fighting on the apron, where they were eliminated by Matt and Kyle. Kyle and Dax paired off and also wound up fighting on the apron, when Bobby Fish ran back down to ringside and eliminated Dax. There at least four referees at ringside, and none of them saw him.
Matt convinced Kyle to team up with him against John Silver… and undercard clown John Silver got to run wild on both of them, and was only able to be stopped because Matt attacked him while he was in the middle of hitting a move on Kyle. They took him out with a Superkick version of Chasing The Dragon, which set up the finish, which was excellent. Kyle tried to lift Silver up but couldn’t due because his arm “gave out.” He told Matt to pick Silver up and eliminate him, which Matt did… at which point Kyle rushed in behind Matt and eliminated him.
That right there is a PERFECT finish… to the point where it almost makes the other stuff even more frustrating. How could someone who can come up with a creative finish like that which moves the key storyline along perfectly have such bad instincts with so many other things in the same damn match.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- EXCELLENT!
Nick Jackson came back out, and the Bucks and reDragon started to argue with each other. Then Adam Page came out and attacked reDRagon, while the Bucks just stood there and watched. Page looked at them questioningly, so they gestured for him to have at reDRagon while they got out of his way. Adam Cole came out to attack Page but Page blocked it and beat Cole up. Page set up for a Buckshot Lariat, but reDragon pulled Cole to safety (although if Cole was close enough to the ropes on the opposite side that they could reach in and pull him out, I’m skeptical that Page would have been able to slingshot himself the necessary distance to hit Cole).
I LOVED this. Having Fish come out to interfere earlier established that he is already at ringside, so when Matt confronted O’Reilly after the match, there was a reason for Nick to come back out (to even the odds). The finish also created a reason for these two teams to be in the same place at the same time (and with Adam Page knowing where they are) so that Page could come out and attack reDRagon in order to show us the Bucks allowing that attack to continue. Cole’s attack being foiled allowed Page to get one over on Cole, too, but with reDragon already being at ringside to avoid Cole taking the big show (and with the Bucks at ringside for Cole to possibly get angry at them for not moving to save him?).

Then John Silver reappeared and dove onto reDRagon, and tossed Kyle into the ring so Page could him the Buckshot Lariat on someone. That part I really didn’t. If you want to set up for Page and a Dork Order partner against reDRagon, I’d think that either Five or Ten would be the guy, as Silver already has a set partner (and, again, is a clown).
Page then grabbed a chair and sat down in it, telling us it was time for “Storytime with Adam Page,” whereupon he cut an awesome promo on Cole, which was only brought down by Bobby Fish’s constant shouting of stupid comments.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS BRYAN DANIELSON- very good
He says that Daniel Garcia reminds him of a young him… but he was fortunate to have a great mentor like William Regal to help him unlock his full potential, whereas Garcia has clowns in 2.0. He will show Garcia the difference that makes tonight.
He also tells Jon Moxley that he will respond to Moxley’s challenge after the match with Garcia later tonight. That part was a tease that really doesn’t make any sense in character. What motivation does Bryan Danielson the character have for holding out on this answer until after the match?

MJF PROMO- strong and powerful stuff… but completely counterproductive.
MJF told his own life story, or a depressed kid with learning disabilities who never quite fit in at school, was so happy to have made the football team, only to be greeted with antisemitic Tantung by his teammates, and the only thing that helped him get up in the morning was pro wrestling, and CM Punk was his hero. And then CM Punk walked away from pro wrestling… and MJF felt like his hero had abandoned him, but he decided to pursue pro wrestling once again so he could be a hero to kids who needed him, and one who wouldn’t walk away like his own hero did. No one this made me want to see CM Punk beat MJF at the PPV. In fact, it just made me feel bad for MJF… because, if you remember, this feud started with MJF’s hero, CM Punk, coming out and interrupting him, just for the purpose of rudely snubbing him. No wonder MJF wants to kick this guy’s ass so badly.
And Punk apparently feels bad, too, because he came out to try to console MJF, but MJF- crying- didn’t want to hear it and walked away. Again… how did this help build to the PPV?

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS 2.0 & DANIEL GARCIA- meh
They disagree with Bryan’s comments from earlier.

KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE vs. DEATH TRIANGLE (Pac & Penta Oscuro) (w/Alex Abrahantes)- 6.75/10
Penta got a fancy entrance, but it was too goofy for my taste. First of all, Alex Abrahantes is just too physically goofy to not be recognizable as his dark monk (I’m not going to make an Undertaker druid comparison because I don’t think it’s really fair), which kills the whole thing because we know that’s not how Abrahantes normally is, so it exposes the whole thing as an act. The way Penta came up from behind the tombstone (clearly he was just squatting behind it, rather than being raised by some kind of cool machine like WWE did with Aleister Black) was also way too goofy.
Excalibur explained “Penta Oscuro” as the dark part of Penta’s personality that he thought he had left behind. The very next sentence was Tony Schiavone being an idiot and contradicting this by saying that it was a “creation” of Malakai Black’s recent actions.
Maybe that angle was just so smart that it killed everything else for me, but I can’t help but feel like at this point, Penta and Pac are idiots for not doing what JYD did in Mid-South where after getting blinded, when he returned to get revenge on the Freebirds, he was wearing goggles so they couldn’t blind him again.
In this match, the referee waited until we had one in and one out to ring the bell. Good. Now why did they do it wrong and in the other match, and ring the bell before the match was set up to begin?
The spot where Brody King put Pac down on Penta’s shoulders, then chopped him so hard that it made Pac give Penta a poisonrana was a bridge too far for me. I just don’t buy that he could hit him that hard. A poisonrana works (in kayfabe, at least) because the wrestler hitting the move is putting A LOT into it, with both their core and their thighs.
The babyfaces won with a roll-up after a clever spot involving the mist. There was good action in here, but this match needed to show us how this new Penta is different, and it completely failed at that.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- SOOOOOO DUMB!
Brody attacked the babyfaces. Malakai Black attacked Abrahantes and grabbed the shovel that Penta had brought to the ring. He went to MURDER Penta with the shovel, but the lights magically, turned off… which also apparently prevented Malakai from just moving his arms down and trying to murder Penta anyway. What’s the worst that happens if he misses?
When the lights came back on, Penta had retreated to a corner, and Buddy Matthews/Murphy/whatever he will be in AEW was standing on a turnbuckle across from Penta. Malakai was so shocked to see him that he collapsed, and seemed to be pleasing with Matthews to stay back. Brody King just stood there silently. Pac crawled into the ring and Budy Matthews stalked the Malakai a bit before Russo Swerve attacking the babyfaces. This was actually worse than most other Russo Swerves, because in this case absolutely no one should have been surprised by this because Malakai Black had outright said they would be having a third guy come in during that promo last week.

On the bright side, they actually did have security come out, although way too late than was reasonable, given the seeming ATTEMPTED MURDER. You’d think the security guard station would be right by the curtain.
The heels have apparently decided not to try to murder Penta anymore. Not sure why. And, of course, if that was never really their plan at all, then what was the purpose of any of that? Why waste time lulling the already-weakened babyfaces into a false sense of security instead of just beating on them?
Brody got some chairs and slid one into the ring. Matthews held Penta while Malakai grabbed the chair… and despite the fact that he is clearly a heel at this point, the fans just kept on chanting “BUDDY! BUDDY! BUDDY!”
Malakai starts grabbing Buddy’s beard and slapping him and yelling at him, while the announcers tell us that Buddy seems to only be a reluctant member of the House of Black. The thig Buddy is resisting doing but then does anyway is Curb-Stomping Penta into a chair. SO he’s got no problem mercilessly pummeling a defenseless man, but using a weapon is crossing a line. LOL. This was SOOOOO f*cking dumb!

On the bright side, at least they had security show up again. I was worried that they were going to expose security as just a tool to try to get wrestlers over rather than a logical part of an organization.

BRITT BAKER VS. THUDNER ROSA VIDEO PACKAGE- Their words were good, but this just shine a bright light on the stupidity of the whole “Lights Out” thing. I’m going to rehash all of the arguments I’ve made over the past five weeks or so about why the gimmick is illogical and idiotic. What this video package showed us was the endpoint of the story that Tony wanted to tell that required him to use that gimmick. And that was Britt saying “Thunder Rosa has never beaten me on paper” and Thunder Rosa saying that she would beat Britt again, and that “this time it’s gonna count.” Was that really worth using such a f*cking idiotic and illogical concept for? Really?

EDDIE KINGSTON & CHRIS JERICHO SEGMENT- bad
There is security already in the ring to keep them apart… although Jericho arranged for it, not AEW. Whatever. I’ll still give kayfabe Tony Khan credit by saying he would have had them there anyway, but I guess we’ll see how the women’s title contract singing on Rampage goes.
Kingston seems to be upset at the entire premise of the segment, deriding it as “sports entertainment” and not what a “wrestling company” would do… because two stars cutting promos on each other isn’t “pro wrestling” in Eddie Kingston’s book, apparently. And the fans seemed to agree. These are the same fans who were so happy to hear Adam Page cut a promo on Adam Cole, LOL. I wonder if they’ll boo the women’s title contract signing segment on Rampage. That’s pretty much just two people cutting promos on each other, too.
Jericho is all breaking kayfabe, saying that he hadn’t heard of Kingston before he showed up in AEW, but when he saw Kingston’s match (“against what’s-his-name”) and heard Kingston’s promo, he saw that Kingston had what it took to get to the top and told Kingston that he could be “a huge babyface in AEW” one day. I laughed my ass off when Kingston called him out on this by asking “what’s a babyface?” but that sort of thing isn’t good for AEW!
Jericho said other dumb sh*t, specifically designed to make him the heel in a way that just doesn’t feel organic to me. Jericho is currently a babyface, but since this storyline started, Jericho has been acting like heel Jericho would, without there ever having been a turn. Like with Bryan Danielson in the Adam Page feud, no matter how good his verbiage and delivery is, it just doesn’t feel organic. It feels like Tony Khan the booker moving pieces around on chessboard, and as a result, I just can’t get into the feud.
Kingston had a good response to Jericho, but once again, I can’t get into this feud because it feels put-on (and, of course, Jericho’s promo went even farther in reminding me that what I’m watching is a play). Kingston wants a match at the PPV. Jericho calls Kingston’s uncle- apparently Kingston’s hero- a failure, and Kingston’s father, too, so Kingston gets upset. Jericho claims that Kingston “can’t win the big one,” and that Jericho is the big one, not anyone else. Jericho accepts Kingston’s challenge. He even swears that if Kingston wins, Jericho will shake his hand and say that he respects him, because winning the match will mean that Kingston has gotten over this “fear of success” that Jericho has randomly accused him of having.
Kingston said that he doesn’t want to face the Jericho that did the Mimosa match. That was fine. Then he went on and said that he also didn’t want the Jericho who got pushed off of the cage in Blood & Guts. Huh? So War Games feud Chris Jericho isn’t serious enough for Kingston?
Then Kingston starts to list the version of Jericho that he does want, including (among others) “the Jericho who turned WCW upside down.” Um… Eddie? That Jericho was pretty clownish? His big culminating line was that Eddie wanted “the Jericho that your friend Levesque hated.” Um… what’s that supposed to mean, in kayfabe? That Eddie could criticize Jericho for his kayfabe-breaking comments at the beginning of this segment and then finish the segment saying stuff like this is utterly ridiculous to me. How does someone not see the hypocrisy here?

AHFO SEGMENT- bad
Something happened on Dark that I didn’t totally understand because they did nothing to explain it, other than showing us brief clips while Matt was talking. Andrade apparently hit a finisher and then tagged Isiah Kassidy in and let him get the pin or something, maybe? Anyway, Matt says that he is sure Adrade will win the TNT Title on Rampage, and he suggest that at the PPV, they have a Tornado Trios match where Sammy Guevara teams up with Darby Allin and Sting to face Andrade, Matt, and Isiah Kassidy, leaving Marq Quen out in the cold. So does Matt have confidence in these guys or not? Everything we’ve seen indicates that he has no confidence in either guy, but now he apparently does have confidence in Kassidy, because a win that he should be smart enough to know was Andrade being nice for unexplained reasons?

FACE OF THE REVOLUTION LADDER MATCH QUALIFIER: Ten vs. Ricky Starks (w/Will Hobbs)- 4/10
Starks got caught in the Full Nelson, but was able to escape by blinding Ten by turning his mask so he couldn’t see… except that Ten has Starks in his finishing hold. He shouldn’t need to see after that point if his finisher is as potent as Excalibur has been claiming. Ten broke the hold, allowing Starks to spear him for the win. The babyface announcers put this over as “smart” and acted like Starks had done nothing wrong. Isn’t messing with someone’s mask cheating?

THE YOUNG BUCKS INTERRUPT reDRagon & ADAM COLE’S BACKSTAGE PROMO- very good
They’re (understandably) still upset about before. They say they are even more motivated to win net week’s battle royale now so that they can kick reDRagon’s ass at the PPV. Arguing happens and the Bucks leave. Once they’re gone, Cole yells at reDRagon saying that he needs them and the Bucks to get along.

AEW TBS TITLE MATCH: Jade Cargill(c) (w/Mark Sterling) vs. The Bunny (w/Matt Hardy)- 3.5/10
Jade worked the arm a bit. Then the heel managers did heel manager things to set up a spot where Jade blocked a brass knuckles shot with the TBS Title belt. Aubrey Edwards ejected both managers from ringside. It’s amazing to me that this will happen in a situation like this (and I’m not saying Aubrey shouldn’t have ejected them here), but won’t happen in other matches, even when the referee actually sees the heel manager do something wrong.
Jade was upset that her manager was ejected, and foolishly let herself get distracted resulting in the Buy getting in a false finish on a roll-up and then being able to get some offense, but Jade reversed the Bunny’s finisher and hit Jaded for the win. I was hoping they’d let Jade have longer matches by this point. Even if just for her sake, they REALLY need to start running some house shows.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH JADE CARGILL IS INTERRUPTED BY… JADE CARGILL- good
I popped for Jade just yanking the mic away from Tony. She made some Goldberg references, asking “who’s next?” and then amended it to “who’s left.” Tay Conti came out. She said she would beat Jade’s ass and charged to the ring. Jade suggested that they have the match at the PPV while Tay was running down the ramp. That was awkward, but I liked it. It felt like Jade did not know that Tay was going to run down the ramp as soon as she finished talking. It felt more real.
Anyway, they were face to face. Almost literally, which shocked me, as I just assumed Jade was a lot taller than Tay. The Bunny came in from behind to attack Tay. Yes, they have history, but it really felt to me like she was doing for the booker’s reasons (so that Tay could be shined up by taking her out, and then be distracted and thus not look bad when Jade ra in and took her out) rather than her own. Anna Jay came out with a chair to chase Jade away from Tay, like an actual friend would.

ALEX MARVEZ’S INTERVIEW WITH KEITH LEE IS INTERRUPTED BY RICKY STARKS & WILL HOBBS- good, but…
Starks was rude to Lee, who took it in stride, the way only a man of supreme confidence can. He knows this annoying little fly isn’t really a threat to him. He and Hobbs had a stare-down. This was all well and good, but they really need to let Keith Lee talk. He’s so damn good at it, and this is now his third week in the company and he hasn’t done so yet.

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. DAINEL GARCIA- 7.25/10
Ross said that this may be “the Match of the Year.” Yeah… I love both of these guys, but there just isn’t enough time left in the show for them to deliver anything that will get serious buzz, so you really shouldn’t say it.
Dragon won a great grapplef*ck match cleanly.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
Danielson praised Garcia, saying “that’s exactly what I wanted to see.” 2.0 attacked Dragon. Jonn Moxley came out to make the save. He came out through the crowd, but the sound guy apparently knew he was coming and so played his music for this impromptu rescue. Can we please not do this sort of thing?
Garcia wet to hit Moxley with a chair, but Dragon yanked it out of his hands. Garcia wanted to fight Moxley anyway, and was quickly dispatched with a Paradigm Shift while Dragon watched, making no effort to save him. I guess he feels that he gave Garcia the option not to do something stupid but Garcia insisted on doing it anyway and was getting what he deserved. Dragon then accepted Moxley’s challenge for a match at Revolution with a wonderful little promo. Now THAT has the potential to be Match of the Year.

This was another mixed bag show from AEW. The usual issues cropped up in some places, hurting the show greatly, but where they were absent, the show was great. I’m not really sure what else to say at this point.

STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES:
1. Tony Schiavone- “We saw reDRagon and Best Friends go at it on our last Dynamite on TNT, so there’s a strong issue there.”
“They wrestled one match six weeks ago, and therefore there is a “strong issue,” Tony? F*ck off. Yes, I know that Cole is friends with reDRagon and Best Friends are friends with Orange Cassidy, and that those two feuded for a month after that, but that’s not what Tony said.
This (feeling the need to make a stupid little thing feel way more important than it actually is) is one of those WWE announcer things that AEW needs to avoid doing at all costs.