BRM Reviews the 11/20/2019 Dynamite

[Big Red Machine]

I popped huge for the “I googled Juvi” sign.

NICK JACKSON vs. REY FENIX- 7.75/10
YES! While Matt is out, use Nick to have exciting matches that give other people singles wins! That’s how you use your resources wisely! Why does it seem to be so hard for other promotions to figure this sort of thing out?
Okay… the mirror-image dropkick attempt after getting back in the ring to set up the indy standoff might have been the least necessary thing I’ve ever seen. This was predictably spotty, but they cut it off at right about the point where it started to feel excessive, so that was good. The story was both guys working the head. Fenix wins, as he should, and snubs Nick’s handshake.

DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD vs. HIKARU SHIDA- 7.25/10

DARK ORDER VIDEO PACKAGE- great, but it doesn’t feel like it meshes with anything we’ve seen so far. This is the sort of thing that it would have been nice to see BEFORE last week’s segment with Mark Stunt. It also doesn’t give us any explanation of anything they were doing before when they were seemingly targeting Best Friends.
Also, I’m very disappointed in AEW. They were my last hope that a promotion would go out of their way to actually give out a phone number and set up a kayfabe phone message/intake line for people seeking to join the Dark Order. Why is CHIKARA the only promotion crazy enough to do this!

DYNAMITE DOZEN BATTLE ROYALE: Billy Gunn vs. Sonny Kiss vs. Joey Janela vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Chuck Taylor vs. MJF vs. Jungle Boy vs. Marko Stunt vs. Adam Page vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. Kip Sabian (w/Penelope Ford)- 2.5/10
Jim Ross confirms that the final two men in this battle royale will face off next week with the winner getting… a fancy diamond ring. SNORE. Hey! Don’t claim and pre-judging. If Orange Cassidy- one of the wrestlers being provided the chance to win this fancy prize- doesn’t give a sh*t about it, then why should any viewer give a sh*t about it?
Daniels snuck down to ringside in a Rey Fenix mask, only to pull it off to distract Pentagon, allowing him to be eliminated. So after getting his revenge on Pentagon by attacking him at the PPV, Daniels has now gotten his revenge again? It would have been nice if Pentagon had done something to Daniels in between now and then, or Daniels had cut a promo or something. This just makes the segment on the PPV feel kind of pointless. Why not just save the big impact of Daniels’ return for this segment?
I did not like Billy Gunn getting to do the big roar spot. He’s not someone you’re going to push as a big monster, so why are you having him make all of your other talent feel secondary? I also didn’t like Jimmy Havoc just grabbing a stapler out of nowhere and stapling people. It’s a f*cking battle royale that won’t even have a winner, but we’ve got to do garbage wrestling because that’s pretty much all Havoc has shown himself to be adept at doing over the past few years.
The referees all then showed up and ordered Havoc to the back and he went. I guess battle royales in AEW have DQs. Or at least this one does, as I’m pretty sure there were weapons used in the battle royale at Double or Nothing. Oh yeah. There was. It was Tommy Dreamer hitting people with a garbage can lid, and JIMMY HAVOC USING A STAPLE GUN.
I’m not saying that I don’t think battle royales should have DQs. I’m just saying it’s painfully with all of the other times in this company when we’ve seen someone do something that absolutely should have warranted a DQ but wasn’t one because “boy it sure would be a shame if this match ended in a DQ.”
Shawn Spears showed up to knock Janela off the top rope with a chair to eliminate him. The match had a running theme of MJF interrupting people who tried to do comedy spots with Billy Gunn and eliminating them. In my book, that makes him the babyface. Gunn almost eliminated him but he hung on. Wardlow then came out to distract Billy Gunn, allowing MJF to rake his eyes, at which point AEW hero, Executive Vice President and Elite member Adam Page swooped in and hit his signature Buckshot Lariat on Gunn and eliminated him… and everybody booed. Whoops.
In a passing comment, Excalibur told us that Page removed himself from the Elite on Being The Elite. WHY IS THIS SH*T NOT AIRING ON YOUR MAIN TV SHOW?!
While I didn’t like the match at all- I’ll also throw in that if Janela vs. Sabian is a direction they want to go (and I don’t see how we can possibly interpret the promo from Full Gear in any other way), I think they shouldn’t have had Janela and Sabian in the same place at the same time (especially when you can stick Jack Evans, Angelico, or Kenny Omega in there to reinforce their losing streak stories)- I did like the execution on the finish. Most of the probs are due to the announcers for their call, and to the wrestlers for waiting the perfect amount of time before having MJF pop up. They waited just long enough for me to wonder if maybe I was wrong and he actually was eliminated and I just missed it, and the showdown we got between Page and Jungle Boy in that time did make it feel like that’s a match they are building to, and thus beginning to raise Jungle Boy up to Page’s level.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
I don’t know why Page went to attack MJF. He’s not the one who MJF screwed; Jungle Boy is. Jungle Boy should be the one going after him (and should have been laid out by Wardlow, leading to a match next week (or on Dark) where Wardlow gets the win and Jungle Boy gets to be a great underdog babyface.

CHRIS JERICHO PROMO- didn’t like it
The whole gimmick with Jericho being “unable” to say the word “sorry” and having Hager say it for him was exactly the sort of thig they should have known a 2019 wrestling crowd would keep popping for the more they did it, so they shouldn’t have done it.
He’s having a celebration next week where I guess he assumes that AEW management are going to thank him. He says there will be games, so that should be exciting. I DEMAND a vignette of them playing Monopoly, just to see Jericho get upset when lands on someone else’s hotel and cut a promo on the game (“what kind of a stupid name is Marvin Gardens, anyway?”).

SCU COME OUT TO INTERRUPT CHRIS JERICHO- hated it
They reverse-psychology-ed Jericho into giving Scorpio Sky a title shot next week in a way that made Jericho look like a total buffoon. Scorpio Sky pinned the world champion clean! How about he gets a title match because Tony Kahn is actually paying attention to sh*t and ordered one booked because Scorpio Sky has clearly earned it!
The final part of their exchange was good, but there was just way too much buffoonery before it. Jericho started a fight and the rest of the Inner Circle quickly joined in. Proud and Powerful just happen to be carrying handcuffs around with them backstage, so they handcuff Kaz and Daniels to the ropes while Scorpio gets beaten up. Brandon Cutler and f*cking Michael Nakazawa, who has acted in a very bigoted manner towards every non-Japanese wrestler other than Kenny Omega, came out to try to make the save. And here come Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. I sure bet Cody and the Rock N’ Roll Express wish they had random people coming out to try to help them. Eventually the heels all backed down from LuchaSaurus because he’s big.

LUCHASAURUS (w/Marko Stunt & Jungle Boy) vs. PETER AVALON (w/Leva Bates)- squash
I will proudly announce to all of you that I laughed out loud at Peter Avalon telling Luchasaurus “I will turn you into motor oil, you fossil!”

PROUD & POWERFUL vs. PRIVATE PARTY- 6.75/10
I’m sorry… you can’t do a heavy heat angle with Proud & Powerful, then send them out five minutes later to be babbyfaces in a tribute match to their friend who tragically died a few days ago. Do the tribute match first!
They did moves. Proud & Powerful tried to cheat but Nick Jackson came out to stop them. Private Party got the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Sammy Guevara came out to attack Nick Jackson but Dustin Rhodes jumped the guardrail and beat the Inner Circle up with the very cast that they have forced him to wear. Now where was Dustin in the previous segment when the Inner Circle were beating people up unfairly?

Next week Cody returns after… what? Oh. Right. MJF and Wardlow ALMOST MURDERED HIM. This should have gotten a recap package.
Also returning next week is Kenny Omega, who will face Pac.

KENNY OMEGA PROMO- good build for his match with Pac next week.

DARBY ALLIN vs. JON MOXLEY- 7/10
It occurs to be that Darby Allin is actually AEW’s Undertaker. He does a lot of the same tricks, but with a different spin. I love it.
This match hit my threshold for an acceptable TV main event, but was to one-sided for my liking, even for a Darby Allin match. I don’t think the one-sidedness of this win helps Moxley any extra and I don’t think the loss helps Darby look any tougher, as we saw him do the same sort of thing against Jericho a few weeks ago.

This was an okay show from AEW. They have good wrestling, but so much of their other stuff just doesn’t click for me. I’d like to see more characters get mic time in the future.