BRM Reviews the 7/29/2021 Dynamite (Fight for the Fallen 2021)
Posted: Jul 29th, '21, 22:10
VIDEO PACKAGE EXPLAINING HOW ADAM PAGE IS A COWBOY- good
I didn’t like the Dark Order guys being featured so prominently in the beginning the same way Page was because that made this feel goofy and because it really wasn’t about them, but this did an answer a long-standing question of mine (“how, exactly, is Adam Page a cowboy if he doesn’t do anything cowboy-like other than his manner of dress?), so I can’t really complain to much that they came up with a decent answer.
Jim Ross insisted- multiple times- that the Dark Order were “an all-star team.” He really said that.
TEN MAN ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH IN WHICH IF ADAM PAGE & THE DARK ORDER WIN, ADAM PAGE GETS AN AEW WORLD TITLE SHOT AND TWO MEMBERS OF THE DARK ORDER GET AN AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE SHOT, BUT IF THEY LOSE, THEN ADAM PAGE MUST FORFEIT HIS SPOT IN THE TOP FIVE RANKINGS: Adam Page & the Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, & Alex Reynolds) (w/the Dark Order) vs. The Elite (Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Doc Gallows, & Karl Anderson) (w/Michael Nakazawa & Brandon Cutler)- 7/10
The Elite came out with basketball-style introductions, wearing basketball jerseys, and were dribbling basketballs. What is the purpose of this crap? Is the person who is entertained by “It’s supposed to be wrestling, but they’re doing it like it’s basketball, lol!” really someone you want to cater to? Is that person even smart enough to figure out how to order a PPV, or buy a t-shirt on the internet, or buy a ticket?
And don’t give me any of that “it shows that they’re not taking the Dark Order seriously” crap. There are a million ways you can show that without having guys who are supposed to be main eventers act like clowns. And I don’t care about the Space Jam tie-in, either. You can do that with guys who aren’t supposed to be main eventers.
The majority of the match was a bunch of action spots. Eventually we got down to Page fighting on his own against Kenny and the Bucks, and they had to cheat to beat him. I don’t have a problem with Page losing here if AEW uses it to actually TELL THE STORY of Page needing to find his confidence again. You can’t just ignore the issue for a month and then say it magically happened.
I thought the dirty finish was the right call, but I thought that having it be the same finish by which Page cost the Bucks their tag title shot was a mistake, because it just reminds us that the Bucks do have a legitimate reason to be angry at Page.
ALEX MARVEZ IS SUPPOSED TO BE INTERVIEWING THE DEATH TRIANGLE, BUT INSTEAD IT’S ONLY PAC- meh
The story is that someone cancelled the Lucha Bros. car so they’re still at the airport. Obviously, the person who made the phony call to get the car cancelled is in the wrong, but why can’t they just get another rental car? It shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Certainly not if their flight arrived a reasonable amount of time before bell-time.
Chavo and Andrade strolled up to Pac. Chavo claimed that Andrade’s people have called a limo for the Lucha Bros. Chavo then explained to Pac what a limo was. I guess he was insulting Pac by implying that he was poor? Or maybe dumb? I don’t know. It was an awkward line.
Then Andrade said something that I did not understand at all. This is the first time that I haven’t been able to understand his English.
RICKY STARKS’ FTW CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION- bad
Will Hobbs isn’t here because he’s “out recruiting.” This had better be a pretty special prospect he is talking to if he’s missing a show for it. I’m not saying that’s not a valid excuse, but it’s the sort of line that feels like such an ass-pull that I would really, really love to see it actually be a hint of something rather than just a throwaway line.
Starks cut a very good promo on Cage, but I REALLY hope that line about Cage not checking up on Starks when Starks broke his neck is supposed to be a lie, because that would definitely make the guy you’re trying to turn babyface come off as a lot less likable. And speaking of making the guy youre trying to turn babyface a lot less likable..
Brian Cage eventually decided that he had heard enough. He marched down the aisle… and instead of attacking the people who had betrayed him, HE ATTACKED THE INNOCENT MUSICIANS. One of them he even attacked FROM BEHIND! How f*cking stupid can you be!
Let me put this in terms that Brian Cage and Cody (he’s the one supposedly booking the men’s singles division, right?) can understand: This is like Wolverine going into the Hellfire Club to stop their evil plan, but instead of going for Sebatian Shaw or the goons, he starts stabbing the waitstaff.
Cage finally got into the ring. Starks just stood there like an idiot instead of running away. Cage took a trombone with him, but instead of trying to hit Starks with it, he broke it over his own knee to show Starks his strength… so Starks just threw the flowers he was holding into Cage’s face to distract him and ran away… and Cage just stood there in the ring afterwards, watching Starks slowly retreat up the ramp instead of chasing after him again.
So, to recap, our new babyface is an asshole, an idiot, and very lazy. That’s a good start to a babyface turn.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI PROMO- fine
He wants to challenge the winner of tonight’s US Title match. If this match happens on AEW TV or PPV, it’s kind of a big deal for AEW, but for me, personally, I’ve seen enough Tanahashi (including in the US) that, while I’m certain the match will be great (assuming it’s Archer and not Hikuleo, of course), it’s just not that exciting to me.
FTR (w/Tully Blanchard) vs. THE INNER CIRCLE (Santana & Ortiz) (w/Konnan)- 5.75/10
This was a mess, but I’m going to assume that Cash Wheeler’s injury was legitimate and that that screwed up everything they had planned, and then someone in the back made the call to just bring this one home and save the time for something else. That being said, FTR winning clean- especially when it was now a two-on-one situation seems like absolutely the wrong finish. Let them win dirty, or have LAX win clean and then have FTR complain about it being unfair.
EARLIER TODAY, TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD- great
If only the fans would play along and actually boo her.
TONY SCHIAVONE MAKES “THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT- bad
It’s that AEW is coming to the United Center in August for another show with a name. That’s not a big deal! Yes, it makes everyone following the internet news think CM Punk is going to show up on that show and thus it got the crowd to chant for Punk, but if you’re not an internet fan, you have no idea why this is different than any other show with a name (which has been the past six weeks or so, and will continue for the next four at least). If you want to do a “big announcement” about the Punk thing, just say that Punk is coming in. The way they did this felt like they tried to pass off something routine as a huge deal.
ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS DARBY ALLIN (& STING)- MUCH better… until the end
Darby said something that makes perfect sense without the context of Bryan and/or Punk coming in, but feels like a much bigger deal with them coming in (and Darby vs. Bryan should be tremendous).
And then the announcers killed it by portraying it as “big news,” when it’s just a promo. AEW needs to knock it off with this “clubhouse” sh*t. They are teasing this news in the most alienating way possible to any casual fan who might have decided to give them a try.
IWGP UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Lance Archer (w/Jake “the Snake” Roberts) vs. Hikuleo (w/Haku)- 5.5/10
Archer won a meh brawl cleanly.
MALACHAI BLACK JUMPS CODY RHODES DURING AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX MARVEZ- pretty good
This was a good brawl. Black won with a knee that Excalibur referred to as a “live round.” THEY’RE ALL LIVE ROUND, BECAUSE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PRETEND IT’S REAL, YOU MORON!
Black knelt down next to Cody and said things that we mostly couldn’t hear because of the crowd, so hopefully what he said wasn’t important to the storyline.
Road agents and even some of the younger undercard babyfaces came out to check on Cody. Remember four months ago when the Factory were going to murder Cody with stairs and no one came out to help him. Well this time, when he got a just a knee in the face, people we haven’t seen interact with him before like Fuego del Sol and Dante Martin came out to make sure he was okay. And while these people who we’ve never even seen Cody interact with before are there checking on him, do you know who wasn’t there? ANYONE FROM THE NIGHTMARE FAMILY! There are about fifty people in that stable!
The reason for this soon became clear: We needed these undercard nobodies to come check on Cody so that Malachai Black could knock one of them out with his finish kick for no reason other than to be evil. I’m sure this might seem like a nit-pick to some, but it’s actually a big deal, because the more you have things seem to happen solely because the plot requires it, the more scripted the show feels, and thus the harder it is to immerse yourself in the fictional universe.
MIRO PROMO- great
CHRISTIAN CAGE & JURASSIC EXPRESS (Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy) (w/Marko Stunt) vs. HARDY FAMILY OFFICE (Angelico & Private Party) (w/Matt Hardy)- 6/10
Babyfaces win clean. The announcers pushed Christian as a top contender.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
The Blade jumps out of the crowd and knocks Christian out with his brass knuckles. The execution here was very good, but there are a few things that bother me about the booking. They’re all relatively little things, but they added up to me feeling more negative towards this than positive.
1. I don’t like that the Blade is now back with the HFO after being nowhere near them for the first part of the Hardy vs. Christian feud because he was off having his own feud with Orange Cassidy. That sort of “people can only be involved in one thing at a time, so we’ll keep them out of a feud they should logically be involved in just because they’re involved in this other feud” feels very WWE to me
2. Him running in and hitting Christian from behind with the knucks feels like a rehash of the Orange Cassidy feud that The Blade just got done with. I realize there are only so many things you can do with brass knuckles, but we just had him run in and knock someone out from behind with brass knuckles last week.
3. The way the announcers framed this win made it feel like Christian was headed up the card, towards Kenny Omega, and with them having temporarily moved Adam Page out of the title picture, that makes all the sense in the world. This is not the time to place Christian in a diversionary feud. This is the time to have him beat Matt and then challenge (and lose to) Omega.
Q.T. Marshall wants to wait until next week to apologize to Tony Schiavone so that Tony’s family can be in attendance. I’d ask how stupid Tony would have to be to not see this coming, but… well… it’s Tony Schiavone.
NICK GAGE VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- very good… but I think Nick Gage’s promos actually do lose something when he can’t say naughty words.
VARISTY BLONDS & JULIA HART PROMO- The guys did all of her talking for her. This was passable.
THUNDER ROSA PROMO- good babyfacestuff
THUNDER ROSA vs. JULIA HART (w/the Varsity Blonds)- 3.75/10
Thunder Rosa won a short match cleanly. By my count (which is really just Cagematch.net) Thunder Rosa has now won EIGHTEEN STRAIGHT MATCHES IN AEW. So, of course, next week on Dynamite there will be a #1 contendership match between… Leyla Hirsch and The Bunny. Yes, really.
JON MOXLEY PROMO- Mostly great, but if Moxley has been calling out Tanahashi and Tanahashi has been ducking him, that makes Tanahashi a heel.
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH IN WHICH IF CHRIS JERICHO LOSES OR ANY MEMBER OF THE INNER CIRCLE INTERFERES, HE WON’T GET ANOTHER MATCH AGAINST MJF: Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage- 6.75/10
I’m giving them a pass on the “no rules” thing even though the Inner Cirlce can’t help stip is there because you could argue that that isn’t actually a rule for this match so much as a stipulation of Jericho getting his later match with MJF. If the Inner Circle come out and help Jericho, it’s not going to be a DQ, but it will mean that he doesn’t get the match with MJF, even if he wins this match.
Speaking of MJF, he was on commentary for this match and was great, as he always is.
I thought the way Jericho used his selling to cover his blading on that opening spot was very clever, as was the very idea of starting the match out with that small bit of blood from an unconventional weapon. It showed Gage as dangerous and also very different.
After that point, this was pretty underwhelming. It was relatively basic deathmatch stuff, and the psychology here was nowhere near the level of the Matt Cardona vs. Zack Ryder match. I never got the feeling that Jericho was out of his element here, which made the task to be overcome not feel as great.
I would say that part of the problem with that was the Pain-maker gimmick being used, but at the same time, this supposed “Pain-maker” Jericho didn’t really feel any different from normal Jericho, which made the way it was talked up on commentary both before the match and on last week’s show feel empty. To psychoanalyze a bit, I think the issue was that Jericho wanted to be the Painmaker and thus tried to structure the match like he was just as comfortable as Gage in deathmaches, but just wasn’t willing to take as much punishment and go as ultraviolent as was necessary to make that work.
MJF ANNOUNCES CHRIS JERICHO’S NEXT MATCH- It’s going to be against Juventud Guerrera, in a match where Jericho has to hit a move off the top rope in order to win. I swear I’m not making any of that up.
They tried to frame this as MJF getting one of Jericho’s most bitter rivals, but that just doesn’t ring true to me. When you ask me about Jericho’s most bitter enemies, my mind immediately goes to Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Dean Malenko. Juvi probably doesn’t even make the top five. He’s probably even below Ambrose/Moxley. And it’s 2021! Juvi hasn’t been relevant in at least fifteen years, (and I think calling the Mexi-Cools relevant is quite generous). This feels like a huge step down from the first two labors.
This was a bad show from AEW. The big matches were all underwhelming, and most of the big moments didn’t work for me. Throw in the silliness that is the rankings in the women’s division and a lot of the other usual things that AEW gets wrong, and you’ve got a show with a big name that didn’t deliver in any way.
I didn’t like the Dark Order guys being featured so prominently in the beginning the same way Page was because that made this feel goofy and because it really wasn’t about them, but this did an answer a long-standing question of mine (“how, exactly, is Adam Page a cowboy if he doesn’t do anything cowboy-like other than his manner of dress?), so I can’t really complain to much that they came up with a decent answer.
Jim Ross insisted- multiple times- that the Dark Order were “an all-star team.” He really said that.
TEN MAN ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH IN WHICH IF ADAM PAGE & THE DARK ORDER WIN, ADAM PAGE GETS AN AEW WORLD TITLE SHOT AND TWO MEMBERS OF THE DARK ORDER GET AN AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE SHOT, BUT IF THEY LOSE, THEN ADAM PAGE MUST FORFEIT HIS SPOT IN THE TOP FIVE RANKINGS: Adam Page & the Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, & Alex Reynolds) (w/the Dark Order) vs. The Elite (Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Doc Gallows, & Karl Anderson) (w/Michael Nakazawa & Brandon Cutler)- 7/10
The Elite came out with basketball-style introductions, wearing basketball jerseys, and were dribbling basketballs. What is the purpose of this crap? Is the person who is entertained by “It’s supposed to be wrestling, but they’re doing it like it’s basketball, lol!” really someone you want to cater to? Is that person even smart enough to figure out how to order a PPV, or buy a t-shirt on the internet, or buy a ticket?
And don’t give me any of that “it shows that they’re not taking the Dark Order seriously” crap. There are a million ways you can show that without having guys who are supposed to be main eventers act like clowns. And I don’t care about the Space Jam tie-in, either. You can do that with guys who aren’t supposed to be main eventers.
The majority of the match was a bunch of action spots. Eventually we got down to Page fighting on his own against Kenny and the Bucks, and they had to cheat to beat him. I don’t have a problem with Page losing here if AEW uses it to actually TELL THE STORY of Page needing to find his confidence again. You can’t just ignore the issue for a month and then say it magically happened.
I thought the dirty finish was the right call, but I thought that having it be the same finish by which Page cost the Bucks their tag title shot was a mistake, because it just reminds us that the Bucks do have a legitimate reason to be angry at Page.
ALEX MARVEZ IS SUPPOSED TO BE INTERVIEWING THE DEATH TRIANGLE, BUT INSTEAD IT’S ONLY PAC- meh
The story is that someone cancelled the Lucha Bros. car so they’re still at the airport. Obviously, the person who made the phony call to get the car cancelled is in the wrong, but why can’t they just get another rental car? It shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Certainly not if their flight arrived a reasonable amount of time before bell-time.
Chavo and Andrade strolled up to Pac. Chavo claimed that Andrade’s people have called a limo for the Lucha Bros. Chavo then explained to Pac what a limo was. I guess he was insulting Pac by implying that he was poor? Or maybe dumb? I don’t know. It was an awkward line.
Then Andrade said something that I did not understand at all. This is the first time that I haven’t been able to understand his English.
RICKY STARKS’ FTW CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION- bad
Will Hobbs isn’t here because he’s “out recruiting.” This had better be a pretty special prospect he is talking to if he’s missing a show for it. I’m not saying that’s not a valid excuse, but it’s the sort of line that feels like such an ass-pull that I would really, really love to see it actually be a hint of something rather than just a throwaway line.
Starks cut a very good promo on Cage, but I REALLY hope that line about Cage not checking up on Starks when Starks broke his neck is supposed to be a lie, because that would definitely make the guy you’re trying to turn babyface come off as a lot less likable. And speaking of making the guy youre trying to turn babyface a lot less likable..
Brian Cage eventually decided that he had heard enough. He marched down the aisle… and instead of attacking the people who had betrayed him, HE ATTACKED THE INNOCENT MUSICIANS. One of them he even attacked FROM BEHIND! How f*cking stupid can you be!
Let me put this in terms that Brian Cage and Cody (he’s the one supposedly booking the men’s singles division, right?) can understand: This is like Wolverine going into the Hellfire Club to stop their evil plan, but instead of going for Sebatian Shaw or the goons, he starts stabbing the waitstaff.
Cage finally got into the ring. Starks just stood there like an idiot instead of running away. Cage took a trombone with him, but instead of trying to hit Starks with it, he broke it over his own knee to show Starks his strength… so Starks just threw the flowers he was holding into Cage’s face to distract him and ran away… and Cage just stood there in the ring afterwards, watching Starks slowly retreat up the ramp instead of chasing after him again.
So, to recap, our new babyface is an asshole, an idiot, and very lazy. That’s a good start to a babyface turn.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI PROMO- fine
He wants to challenge the winner of tonight’s US Title match. If this match happens on AEW TV or PPV, it’s kind of a big deal for AEW, but for me, personally, I’ve seen enough Tanahashi (including in the US) that, while I’m certain the match will be great (assuming it’s Archer and not Hikuleo, of course), it’s just not that exciting to me.
FTR (w/Tully Blanchard) vs. THE INNER CIRCLE (Santana & Ortiz) (w/Konnan)- 5.75/10
This was a mess, but I’m going to assume that Cash Wheeler’s injury was legitimate and that that screwed up everything they had planned, and then someone in the back made the call to just bring this one home and save the time for something else. That being said, FTR winning clean- especially when it was now a two-on-one situation seems like absolutely the wrong finish. Let them win dirty, or have LAX win clean and then have FTR complain about it being unfair.
EARLIER TODAY, TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS DR. BRITT BAKER, DMD- great
If only the fans would play along and actually boo her.
TONY SCHIAVONE MAKES “THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT- bad
It’s that AEW is coming to the United Center in August for another show with a name. That’s not a big deal! Yes, it makes everyone following the internet news think CM Punk is going to show up on that show and thus it got the crowd to chant for Punk, but if you’re not an internet fan, you have no idea why this is different than any other show with a name (which has been the past six weeks or so, and will continue for the next four at least). If you want to do a “big announcement” about the Punk thing, just say that Punk is coming in. The way they did this felt like they tried to pass off something routine as a huge deal.
ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS DARBY ALLIN (& STING)- MUCH better… until the end
Darby said something that makes perfect sense without the context of Bryan and/or Punk coming in, but feels like a much bigger deal with them coming in (and Darby vs. Bryan should be tremendous).
And then the announcers killed it by portraying it as “big news,” when it’s just a promo. AEW needs to knock it off with this “clubhouse” sh*t. They are teasing this news in the most alienating way possible to any casual fan who might have decided to give them a try.
IWGP UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Lance Archer (w/Jake “the Snake” Roberts) vs. Hikuleo (w/Haku)- 5.5/10
Archer won a meh brawl cleanly.
MALACHAI BLACK JUMPS CODY RHODES DURING AN INTERVIEW WITH ALEX MARVEZ- pretty good
This was a good brawl. Black won with a knee that Excalibur referred to as a “live round.” THEY’RE ALL LIVE ROUND, BECAUSE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PRETEND IT’S REAL, YOU MORON!
Black knelt down next to Cody and said things that we mostly couldn’t hear because of the crowd, so hopefully what he said wasn’t important to the storyline.
Road agents and even some of the younger undercard babyfaces came out to check on Cody. Remember four months ago when the Factory were going to murder Cody with stairs and no one came out to help him. Well this time, when he got a just a knee in the face, people we haven’t seen interact with him before like Fuego del Sol and Dante Martin came out to make sure he was okay. And while these people who we’ve never even seen Cody interact with before are there checking on him, do you know who wasn’t there? ANYONE FROM THE NIGHTMARE FAMILY! There are about fifty people in that stable!
The reason for this soon became clear: We needed these undercard nobodies to come check on Cody so that Malachai Black could knock one of them out with his finish kick for no reason other than to be evil. I’m sure this might seem like a nit-pick to some, but it’s actually a big deal, because the more you have things seem to happen solely because the plot requires it, the more scripted the show feels, and thus the harder it is to immerse yourself in the fictional universe.
MIRO PROMO- great
CHRISTIAN CAGE & JURASSIC EXPRESS (Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy) (w/Marko Stunt) vs. HARDY FAMILY OFFICE (Angelico & Private Party) (w/Matt Hardy)- 6/10
Babyfaces win clean. The announcers pushed Christian as a top contender.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
The Blade jumps out of the crowd and knocks Christian out with his brass knuckles. The execution here was very good, but there are a few things that bother me about the booking. They’re all relatively little things, but they added up to me feeling more negative towards this than positive.
1. I don’t like that the Blade is now back with the HFO after being nowhere near them for the first part of the Hardy vs. Christian feud because he was off having his own feud with Orange Cassidy. That sort of “people can only be involved in one thing at a time, so we’ll keep them out of a feud they should logically be involved in just because they’re involved in this other feud” feels very WWE to me
2. Him running in and hitting Christian from behind with the knucks feels like a rehash of the Orange Cassidy feud that The Blade just got done with. I realize there are only so many things you can do with brass knuckles, but we just had him run in and knock someone out from behind with brass knuckles last week.
3. The way the announcers framed this win made it feel like Christian was headed up the card, towards Kenny Omega, and with them having temporarily moved Adam Page out of the title picture, that makes all the sense in the world. This is not the time to place Christian in a diversionary feud. This is the time to have him beat Matt and then challenge (and lose to) Omega.
Q.T. Marshall wants to wait until next week to apologize to Tony Schiavone so that Tony’s family can be in attendance. I’d ask how stupid Tony would have to be to not see this coming, but… well… it’s Tony Schiavone.
NICK GAGE VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- very good… but I think Nick Gage’s promos actually do lose something when he can’t say naughty words.
VARISTY BLONDS & JULIA HART PROMO- The guys did all of her talking for her. This was passable.
THUNDER ROSA PROMO- good babyfacestuff
THUNDER ROSA vs. JULIA HART (w/the Varsity Blonds)- 3.75/10
Thunder Rosa won a short match cleanly. By my count (which is really just Cagematch.net) Thunder Rosa has now won EIGHTEEN STRAIGHT MATCHES IN AEW. So, of course, next week on Dynamite there will be a #1 contendership match between… Leyla Hirsch and The Bunny. Yes, really.
JON MOXLEY PROMO- Mostly great, but if Moxley has been calling out Tanahashi and Tanahashi has been ducking him, that makes Tanahashi a heel.
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH IN WHICH IF CHRIS JERICHO LOSES OR ANY MEMBER OF THE INNER CIRCLE INTERFERES, HE WON’T GET ANOTHER MATCH AGAINST MJF: Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage- 6.75/10
I’m giving them a pass on the “no rules” thing even though the Inner Cirlce can’t help stip is there because you could argue that that isn’t actually a rule for this match so much as a stipulation of Jericho getting his later match with MJF. If the Inner Circle come out and help Jericho, it’s not going to be a DQ, but it will mean that he doesn’t get the match with MJF, even if he wins this match.
Speaking of MJF, he was on commentary for this match and was great, as he always is.
I thought the way Jericho used his selling to cover his blading on that opening spot was very clever, as was the very idea of starting the match out with that small bit of blood from an unconventional weapon. It showed Gage as dangerous and also very different.
After that point, this was pretty underwhelming. It was relatively basic deathmatch stuff, and the psychology here was nowhere near the level of the Matt Cardona vs. Zack Ryder match. I never got the feeling that Jericho was out of his element here, which made the task to be overcome not feel as great.
I would say that part of the problem with that was the Pain-maker gimmick being used, but at the same time, this supposed “Pain-maker” Jericho didn’t really feel any different from normal Jericho, which made the way it was talked up on commentary both before the match and on last week’s show feel empty. To psychoanalyze a bit, I think the issue was that Jericho wanted to be the Painmaker and thus tried to structure the match like he was just as comfortable as Gage in deathmaches, but just wasn’t willing to take as much punishment and go as ultraviolent as was necessary to make that work.
MJF ANNOUNCES CHRIS JERICHO’S NEXT MATCH- It’s going to be against Juventud Guerrera, in a match where Jericho has to hit a move off the top rope in order to win. I swear I’m not making any of that up.
They tried to frame this as MJF getting one of Jericho’s most bitter rivals, but that just doesn’t ring true to me. When you ask me about Jericho’s most bitter enemies, my mind immediately goes to Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Dean Malenko. Juvi probably doesn’t even make the top five. He’s probably even below Ambrose/Moxley. And it’s 2021! Juvi hasn’t been relevant in at least fifteen years, (and I think calling the Mexi-Cools relevant is quite generous). This feels like a huge step down from the first two labors.
This was a bad show from AEW. The big matches were all underwhelming, and most of the big moments didn’t work for me. Throw in the silliness that is the rankings in the women’s division and a lot of the other usual things that AEW gets wrong, and you’ve got a show with a big name that didn’t deliver in any way.