BRM Reviews the 8/18/2021 Dynamite

[Big Red Machine]

JON MOXLEY & EDDIE KINGSTON ARE JUMPED BY DANIEL GARCIA & 2.0 ON THEIR WAY TO THE RING-meh
How fortunate for the heels that of all the ways to come through the crowd, these guys chose the one that went right by where they were lying in wait. This felt like it was more about trying to give 2.0 some last-minute credibility (and heat) than it was anything that happened because the characters had any real motivation to do it.
Matt Lee took a mic and called out Darby Allin and Sting to start off…

TEXAS TORNADO TAG TEAM MATCH: Darby Allin & Sting vs. 2.0- 5.75/10
Darby came through the crowd while his music was playing, sneaking up behind the heels and taking Garcia out with a skateboard shot. Can the babyface really not just come straight at the guys?
Ross went out of his way to point out to us that Sting is very old. WHY?!
Apparently Texas Tornado matches are no DQs. I don’t like that. If they’re going to be no DQ then what makes this different from a tag team street fight?
They brawled through the crowd and onto the concourse so they could do some spots. Eddie Kingston showed up to take Garcia away to even things up.
Sting completely no-sold a powerbomb through a table, then got right up hit a Scorpion Death Drop and locked in a double-Scorpion Deathlock for the win. Ross called this last part “unheard of,” despite the fact that Nattie Neidhart has been doing it on worldwide TV for a decade or so.
This was a decent bunch of spots, but any real drama there was killed the moment Sting no-sold the heels’ big spot.

SAMMY GUEVARA’S “BIG ANNOUNCEMENT”- He was going to propose to his girlfriend, which he did, and she said yes. I’m happy for them, but AEW should not have been hyping this as “big announcement.”

SHAWN SPEARS PROMO- passable cheap heat
He offers to have sex with Sammy’s fiancée.

SHAWN SPEARS vs. SAMMY GUEVARA- 4/10
Spears tried to jump Sammy on the ramp but Sammy saw it coming. That’s two for two with people getting attacked on the way to the ring.
They fought on the outside for a while until Tully came out and he and Spears hit a Stuff Piledriver on Sammy. Spears rolled Sammy into the ring and followed him in and the referee called for the bell… and instead of covering the guy who just got hit with a Stuff Piledriver on the floor, Spears went over to go yell at the referee for no conceivable reason, allowing Sammy to roll out of the ring. What a moron.
Also a moron is Tully Blanchard, as he and Spears went to set the Stuff Piledriver on the floor up again RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE. Thankfully Aubrey stepped in threw Tully out (it’s AEW, so you never know if they’re actually going to enforce the rules), and both Tully and Spears were somehow shocked at this and upset by it.
Spears wasted more time arguing with Aubrey. Tully took his jacket off and hit Aubrey with it, which really should be a suspension or something. Spears wasted even more time taunting Sammy’s fiancée, but this allowed Sammy to get a move in. Sammy climbed to the top rope while Spears recovered and went for a high-risk move… and missed. Then Spears bent down to pick him up and Sammy immediately rolled him up. When people like Jim Cornette call AEW guys “spot monkeys” and say they have no psychology, it’s because of sh*t like this.
We came back from a commercial break to see them both leap to the top rope by the same turnbuckle and lock up, perched perilously above a barricade that was perched on the apron… then they both released one arm and Spears gave Sammy the middle finger and Sammy made his big, dramatic facial expression and hit an Ace Crusher off the top rope. No. Just… no. You can’t possibly expect me to be upset at Spears going over and taunting Sammy’s fiancée in the same match where you’re going to fake-ass bullsh*t like this that makes it clear that they’re working together.
They did some more back-and-forth stuff where it was essentially every move getting countered. Spears eventually his finisher off the top rope… and Sammy did this ridiculous sell where I guess he decided he didn’t bounce enough, so he stood just so he could flop back down in an extremely fake-looking way. Spears went into the cover and only got a two-count, so there goes any possibility of me taking the C4 seriously again.
Sammy hit an FU onto the aforementioned barricade, then hit his finisher, and that got kicked out of, too. In the second match on the card! And I’m not usually a “save those big spots for the main event!” kind of guy, but when you’ve got a match with very little build that has done crazier sh*t that the no DQs match that went on before you and where you already showed us that it’s fake with your big goofy “CHEER ME, FOR I AM BEING DEFIANT!” spot and when you started off the match with a f*cking STUFF PILEDRIVER ON THE FLOOR that your proceeded to get ABSOUTELY NOTHING out of… well… if you’re going to be the living embodiment of the stereotypical indy spot monkey that Rip Rogers rails against, it gets hard for me not to see his point of view.
Sammy busted Spears open with some knees, hit the GTH, and got the win. I’m sure I’m in the extremely minority here, but I thought this was one step above a total spotfest. It was all forced drama (and the stuff with Sammy’s fiancée didn’t help, as that was an ingredient thrown in at the last minute, which always makes something feel like an ass-pull). It felt like two guys trying to have a match that people would rave about rather than two guys trying to win.

DON CALLIS INTERRUPTS TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN CAGE- fine
They cut promos on each other. I really wish Callis wouldn’t portray having a “five-star match” as a goal for wrestlers.

DANTE MARTIN VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- GREAT!

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS DAN LAMBERT AND FRIENDS- meh
Lambert ranted and cut a great heel promo until Lance Archer came out to shut him up. Archer was jumped from behind on his way to the ring (3 for 3) by Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky. They beat him down, but nowhere near enough to make me buy that he wouldn’t get back up (he was already doing so before we cut away) and start heading right for Lambert again.

CHRIS JERICHO VERY GOOD- They had better hope the crowd actually knows his song without the music helping them

AEW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) (w/the Elite) vs. A Boy & His Dinosaur (w/Marko Stunt)- 7.25/10
The Bucks won a great match. We got a good callback to Friday’s title change. Christian came out to deal with Omega and chased him to the back.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
A good heel beat-down of the babyfaces, including Christian, who was taken out backstage (and then brought out to the ring for more beating) by Gallows and Anderson.
Excalibur complained that “it becomes a numbers game every time” the Elite are at ringside. Well then maybe Tony Khan should do something about that by barring people from ringside?

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS BRITT BAKER AND REBEL- good
Excalibur pitched to this as Tony standing by with Britt and Jamie Hayter. Oops.
Oh. There she is. She was waiting for Britt to introduce her. That was kind of goofy. Why not just have her standing there?
Britt was good. Hayter was excellent. They cut promos on Red Velvet and Kris Statlander.

MATT HARDY VS. BEST FRIENDS VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- great
Hey, look! A video package catching us up on an angle that happened on Dark!

TONY SCHIAVONE’S IN-RING INTERVIEW WITH PAUL WIGHT IS INTERRUPTED BY THE FACTORY-
Apparently in AEW you don’t get punished in any way for pulling a fan out of the crowd and attacking him. Big Show teased returning to the ring. Q.T. came out and told him that in AEW you don’t say things to get the fans’ hopes up and then not deliver. Really? Because I’ve got some very vivid memories of Tony Khan telling me that records would be important, but last week Tony came out and gave a contract to someone whose record was 1-45.
They jawed back and forth. Q.T. said that due to his “backstage role” in AEW (no one ever explained what that was) he had access to some information about Big Show, and then had the director put some of Big Show’s x-rays up on the screen. I guess no one in AEW has ever heard of HIPAA.
Anyway, Big Show reveals that he talked with Tony Khan last week and Tony has granted him a match against Q.T. Marshall at All Out. Two thoughts here:
1. It’s really unfair for Tony to book a match between two parties and give one of them a lot more notice than the other.
2. AEW, the hot new company, is going to be spending PPV time on the Big Show vs. Q.T. Marshall.

JADE CARGILL & MARK STERLING PROMO- fine
Jade wants a match against Kiera Hogan next week.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS THE ELITE- dumb
They start to talk, but Tony quickly interrupts them and tells them that Tony Khan has informed hi that he has had enough of their shenanigans, so he is booking a four-team #1 contendership tournament between Lucha Bros., Varsity Blonds, Jurassic Express, and Private Party, with the winner getting a title shot in a steel cage so that the Elite can’t interfere.
Let’s examine this for a moment. Tony is tired of these guys using interference to win matches so he’s booking them in a cage match to prevent them from doing so. So far, so good. The problem, however, is that this is inherently an acknowledgement that Jurassic Express were cheated out of a title match, but instead of just giving them a rematch in a situation where they can’t be cheated again (i.e. the cage) Tony is making them go through a tournament. When you earn a title shot, the idea is that you’re earning a fair title shot, and if something goes wrong under the promoter’s watch where the title shot becomes unfair, the promoter should make it up to the wrestler.

TEAM TAZ SEGMENT- meh
It didn’t occur to me until now, but it’s hard for me to care about the fact that Starks “stole” the FTW Tite from Cage when Cage didn’t do anything to earn it. Being angry at Team Taz for betraying Cage, on the other hand, I can get behind (or at least I would be able to if Cage hadn’t responded by attacking innocent people).
Anyway, Starks comes out and starts to cut a promo. The TonyTron cuts to Cage, walking with a purpose, but then he gets jumped from behind by Will Hobbs (I think that counts as a fourth attack on the way to the ring). Cage gets up and they start brawling. Starks heads backstage, too. Instead of cutting to this fight, we instead cut to Tony Schiavone interviewing Death Triangle.

TONY SCHIAVONE’S INTERVIEW WITH DEATH TRIANGLE IS INTERRUPTED BY CHAVO GUERRERO JR. & ANDRADE EL IDOLO-
Schiavone talks up the Lucha Bros. being in the tag team #1 contendership tournament, then tells us that Pac will be facing Andrade at All Out and asks Pac for a comment. Pac cuts a GREAT promo telling us why he’ll win.
Chavo and Andrade then showed up and started trying to impose some conditions on this match even though it’s apparently already official enough for Schiavone to announce publicly.

THUNDER ROSA vs. PENELOPE FORD- 6/10
Some good counter-for-counter mat wrestling in here.

TONY SCHIAVONE INTERVIEWS ARN ANDERSON (& BROCK)- great
Brock has gotten himself booked against Malakai Black next week. Arn cut a great concerned father promo.

MIRO VIDEO PACKAGE/PROMO- good
He wants a match against Eddie Kingston for some reason.

JON MOXLEY PROMO- AWESOME!
Daniel Garcia is going to die on Rampage.

CHRIS JERICHO CANNOT USE THE JUDAS EFFECT: Chris Jericho vs. MJF- 7.5/10
The fans sang Jericho’s song. Huge props to the fans who brought big cue cards to help others.
Why would Jericho punch the camera instead of just punching MJF? Terrible referee Aubrey Edwards not only didn’t count them out, but also made no effort to get the big, heavy foreign object (the camera) out of either man’s hands.
Ross said that Jericho’s Lionsault is “normally the finisher.” Dude… not since about 2000.
Jericho was standing on the top rope punching MJF- who was seated on the top turnbuckle- in the head with a closed fist… and Aubrey Edwards just stands there and watches. Is her real father Red Shoes? Refereeing this terrible must be genetic.
The crowd was very hot for this. There was cheating. MJF worked the arm and won with Salt of the Earth but wouldn’t let up after the bell. Ross said that he couldn’t remember seeing Jericho tap. If that’s true, it probably has more to do with J.R.’s memory than Jericho’s toughness, as J.R. called about six years’ worth of Jericho matches, and he was a heel for a good chunk of it.


A passable show from AEW.