BRM Reviews the 9/22/2021 Dynamite (DRAGON VS. KENNY!)
Posted: Sep 23rd, '21, 22:32
BRYAN DANIELSON vs. KENNY OMEGA (w/Don Callis)- 9.25/10
I loved Callis being at ringside instead of on commentary. It subtly put over how worried Kenny actually was, that he wanted Callis ready to interfere at a moment’s notice, even in a non-title match.
I figured out what the finish was going to be the moment they announced that this was going to open the show, but that in no way took away from my enjoyment of the match. I even gave them an extra .25 just for the way the position they were in at the end set up the continued post-match brawling in a way that felt so natural.
Bryan worked the arm while Kenny worked the head and neck. Some of the stuff Bryan took scared the hell out of me (that Snap Dragon on the ramp in particular). The story here was each man managing to survive the other’s big stuff, except for one or two big things which they were able to avoid getting hit with altogether- One-Winged Angel and Phoenix Splash for Kenny, Crossface for Dragon (and maybe Busaiku Knee, as the only one of those Bryan hit was outside of the ring)- setting those moves up as the moves to watch for in their inevitable rematch. And as Bryan kept taking more stuff and kept popping back up and coming back, Kenny’s confidence slowly slipped and he went that last one percent from 99% business to 100% business… and even then he still couldn’t put Dragon away.
The time-limit expired while they were in the middle of a heated brawl, so they just kept going. It quickly resulted in a takedown by Kenny that Bryan managed to turn into a crossface… at which point Adam Cole and the Young Bucks came out and pulled Bryan off… and instead of the expected attack on Bryan, they all went and checked on Kenny, which did a great job of selling how much of a threat Dragon (and his crossface) is.
Of course, once they knew Kenny was okay, they went and triple-superkicked Bryan. They looked like they wanted to do even more damage, but Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Jungle Boy came out to fight them off.
I REALLY love the draw here. Full Gear 2021 is almost two months away. If Bryan had won, there would be no logical reason to wait that long to give him a title shot, and it would be very hard to go the seven weeks between now and then without it feeling like you are treading water. With a draw, this becomes the first step in a story where Kenny can argue that Dragon didn’t beat him so he hasn’t done anything to prove that he deserves a title shot (though we all know that not only might Dragon have beaten Kenny here if Kenny hadn’t gone to the eyes so much, but also that with the longer time limit in a world title match, the crossface that Bryan got on at the end would have been well within that time limit), and Bryan then has to somehow earn a title shot, whether that is Kenny making him go through all of the members of the Bullet Club, or Bryan just beating people every week and climbing the rankings and being awarded one, or Bryan wins some matches, loses others, and gets put into a #1 contendership match where he overcomes the Elite’s attempts to screw him, or however you want to do it.
The only thing that I disliked here was the fans’ reaction to the draw, which was to boo loudly, as if they got screwed out of something. You got two guys working their asses off for THIRTY MINUTES! Don’t boo them! It’s not like they did gaga for over half of the match like Daniels and Punk did in ROH, or Daniels and AJ in PWG. I’m thrilled that we’ve gotten rid of “WHAT!?” and “YOU F*CKED UP!” and people shouting “SWEET!” after the two-count in a nearfall, but now it’s time to take the next step, which is to change the response to a time-limit draw from “BOOOOO!” back to “FIVE MORE MINUTES!”
CM PUNK PROMO- TREMENDOUS!
GREAT… although I wonder how much that “we want to see the old, angry CM Punk” comment came off to people who don’t listed to Wade Keller. I thought Punk did an AMAZING job of both answering that criticism in a way that made sense in kayfabe and weaving it into his current feud and building up his match against Will Hobbs on Rampage.
MJF (w/Wardlow) vs. BRIAN PILLMAN JR. (w/Julia Hart)- 6/10
So where is Griff Garrison?
I HATED the spot where MJF grabbed Julia Hart to use her as a shield and Julia just stood there and let him drag her around. Either she can be an active wrestler, or she can be a damsel. She can’t go back and forth between the two depending on the needs of the plot. I suppose you could have said that she didn’t resist because if she hit MJF then Pillman Jr. would have been DQed, but if you’re going to do that, 1) you need to clue the announcers in and they need to do their part, and 2) don’t do a spot forty seconds later where she pie-faces MJF right in front of the referee.
Pillman Jr. lost because he spent too much time celebrating instead of following up right away. He did this several times earlier in the match as well, and Ross harped on it enough to make me think that this was intentional, rather than a babyface being an idiot and Ross being persnickety and pointing it out, but it’s always possible that it’s the latter.
ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO & JAKE HAGER- good
They’re willing to fight Dan Lambert’s crew.
MALAKAI BLACK vs. CODY RHODES (w/Arn Anderson & Brandi Rhodes)- 6.5/10
Cody got a special entrance for this match that started all mystical and then turned into his entrance while he rose up from the ground. He was wearing a completely ridiculous outfit. It’s something a you’d see in a superhero comic from the 1950s. It even had an ugly blue cape. The get-up Brandi was wearing was better, but that’s not saying much. Hers had 1970’s superhero vibes to it.
The crowd was very anti-Cody. Cody was getting his butt kicked early on so he rolled out of the ring. Black sat down cross-legged… and Brandi jumped into the ring, sat down in front of him, and flipped him off, which came off like a total heel move. It’s basically the same as MJF making the kissy-face at Julia Hart earlier, except that was a competitor distracting himself with someone on the outside. This was even worse because it was someone who wasn’t in the match jumping into the ring to distract someone who was.
And don’t tell me it wasn’t intended as a distraction, because while Black was laughing at Brandi’s pathetic attempt to be edgy and tough, Cody attacked him from behind. Hey, referee? You maybe want to eject Brandi from ringside now that she has shown a willingness to get involved in the match?
They did stuff and it was pretty good, with Black looking for the Black Mass and Cody working the knee. There was a spot where Cody got bumped into Arn and knocked him off the apron and Cody went to check on Arn instead of following up (which Arn scolded him for).
The finish saw Cody have Black in the corner and not only ignore the referee’s instructions to back off, but to actually shove the referee when the referee tried to stop him. This should have been a DQ, but wasn’t. Instead, we got Aleister Black using the referee being pushed away to blow mist in Cody’s eyes because apparently we’re still doing that in 2021. Black then rolled Cody up with a small package for the win. Black cheating would have been a lot more effective if Cody hadn’t cheated several times (the Brandi distraction, hair-pulling, not breaking on the referee’s instructions) before that while Black had been wrestling cleanly up until that point. Why is cheating okay when Cody does it but wrong when Black does it?
MIRO VS. SAMMY GUEVARA VIDEO PACKAGE- bad
This started off with Sammy telling us that “winning a match is one thing, but beating down a defenseless man after? That just ain’t right.” You mean that thing that happens seventeen times on every episode of Dynamite, but you haven’t cared about until the time it happened to your friend? Sorry, Sammy, but that’s not how morality works.
Sammy then said that not only would he win the title next week, but he would buy his buddy Fuego del Sol a new car… to replace the one that Miro won fair and square because Fuego wagered it in a match because that was the only way he could get himself a title shot. It must be so nice to be Fuego del Sol and live a life where nothing you do has any negative consequences because someone with lots of disposable income will come along and take pity on you.
DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. FTR (w/Tully Blanchard)- 7.5/10
FTR are 21-2. You’d think that would get you a title shot, but they’ve actually struggled to break the top five, sitting at #5 for the last few weeks. I bet you anything that all of the teams above them other than the Bucks have a much less impressive record than 21-2. And if their records are even more impressive than 21-2, and then it just makes one wonder why none of those teams have gotten a title shot.
This was a great tag match with lots of great twists and turns. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Darby Allin is a great babyface in peril.
AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) (w/Jamie Hayter & Rebel) vs. Ruby Soho- 7.25/10
They did some big moves and had an exciting match. Dr. Baker won due to interference. Based on what we learned last month with the Young Bucks, the logical thing to do here would be to book a rematch in a cage, but I’ll bet you that doesn’t happen.
This was an awesome episode of Dynamite. It felt like watching a mini-PPV.
I loved Callis being at ringside instead of on commentary. It subtly put over how worried Kenny actually was, that he wanted Callis ready to interfere at a moment’s notice, even in a non-title match.
I figured out what the finish was going to be the moment they announced that this was going to open the show, but that in no way took away from my enjoyment of the match. I even gave them an extra .25 just for the way the position they were in at the end set up the continued post-match brawling in a way that felt so natural.
Bryan worked the arm while Kenny worked the head and neck. Some of the stuff Bryan took scared the hell out of me (that Snap Dragon on the ramp in particular). The story here was each man managing to survive the other’s big stuff, except for one or two big things which they were able to avoid getting hit with altogether- One-Winged Angel and Phoenix Splash for Kenny, Crossface for Dragon (and maybe Busaiku Knee, as the only one of those Bryan hit was outside of the ring)- setting those moves up as the moves to watch for in their inevitable rematch. And as Bryan kept taking more stuff and kept popping back up and coming back, Kenny’s confidence slowly slipped and he went that last one percent from 99% business to 100% business… and even then he still couldn’t put Dragon away.
The time-limit expired while they were in the middle of a heated brawl, so they just kept going. It quickly resulted in a takedown by Kenny that Bryan managed to turn into a crossface… at which point Adam Cole and the Young Bucks came out and pulled Bryan off… and instead of the expected attack on Bryan, they all went and checked on Kenny, which did a great job of selling how much of a threat Dragon (and his crossface) is.
Of course, once they knew Kenny was okay, they went and triple-superkicked Bryan. They looked like they wanted to do even more damage, but Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Jungle Boy came out to fight them off.
I REALLY love the draw here. Full Gear 2021 is almost two months away. If Bryan had won, there would be no logical reason to wait that long to give him a title shot, and it would be very hard to go the seven weeks between now and then without it feeling like you are treading water. With a draw, this becomes the first step in a story where Kenny can argue that Dragon didn’t beat him so he hasn’t done anything to prove that he deserves a title shot (though we all know that not only might Dragon have beaten Kenny here if Kenny hadn’t gone to the eyes so much, but also that with the longer time limit in a world title match, the crossface that Bryan got on at the end would have been well within that time limit), and Bryan then has to somehow earn a title shot, whether that is Kenny making him go through all of the members of the Bullet Club, or Bryan just beating people every week and climbing the rankings and being awarded one, or Bryan wins some matches, loses others, and gets put into a #1 contendership match where he overcomes the Elite’s attempts to screw him, or however you want to do it.
The only thing that I disliked here was the fans’ reaction to the draw, which was to boo loudly, as if they got screwed out of something. You got two guys working their asses off for THIRTY MINUTES! Don’t boo them! It’s not like they did gaga for over half of the match like Daniels and Punk did in ROH, or Daniels and AJ in PWG. I’m thrilled that we’ve gotten rid of “WHAT!?” and “YOU F*CKED UP!” and people shouting “SWEET!” after the two-count in a nearfall, but now it’s time to take the next step, which is to change the response to a time-limit draw from “BOOOOO!” back to “FIVE MORE MINUTES!”
CM PUNK PROMO- TREMENDOUS!
GREAT… although I wonder how much that “we want to see the old, angry CM Punk” comment came off to people who don’t listed to Wade Keller. I thought Punk did an AMAZING job of both answering that criticism in a way that made sense in kayfabe and weaving it into his current feud and building up his match against Will Hobbs on Rampage.
MJF (w/Wardlow) vs. BRIAN PILLMAN JR. (w/Julia Hart)- 6/10
So where is Griff Garrison?
I HATED the spot where MJF grabbed Julia Hart to use her as a shield and Julia just stood there and let him drag her around. Either she can be an active wrestler, or she can be a damsel. She can’t go back and forth between the two depending on the needs of the plot. I suppose you could have said that she didn’t resist because if she hit MJF then Pillman Jr. would have been DQed, but if you’re going to do that, 1) you need to clue the announcers in and they need to do their part, and 2) don’t do a spot forty seconds later where she pie-faces MJF right in front of the referee.
Pillman Jr. lost because he spent too much time celebrating instead of following up right away. He did this several times earlier in the match as well, and Ross harped on it enough to make me think that this was intentional, rather than a babyface being an idiot and Ross being persnickety and pointing it out, but it’s always possible that it’s the latter.
ALEX MARVEZ INTERVIEWS CHRIS JERICHO & JAKE HAGER- good
They’re willing to fight Dan Lambert’s crew.
MALAKAI BLACK vs. CODY RHODES (w/Arn Anderson & Brandi Rhodes)- 6.5/10
Cody got a special entrance for this match that started all mystical and then turned into his entrance while he rose up from the ground. He was wearing a completely ridiculous outfit. It’s something a you’d see in a superhero comic from the 1950s. It even had an ugly blue cape. The get-up Brandi was wearing was better, but that’s not saying much. Hers had 1970’s superhero vibes to it.
The crowd was very anti-Cody. Cody was getting his butt kicked early on so he rolled out of the ring. Black sat down cross-legged… and Brandi jumped into the ring, sat down in front of him, and flipped him off, which came off like a total heel move. It’s basically the same as MJF making the kissy-face at Julia Hart earlier, except that was a competitor distracting himself with someone on the outside. This was even worse because it was someone who wasn’t in the match jumping into the ring to distract someone who was.
And don’t tell me it wasn’t intended as a distraction, because while Black was laughing at Brandi’s pathetic attempt to be edgy and tough, Cody attacked him from behind. Hey, referee? You maybe want to eject Brandi from ringside now that she has shown a willingness to get involved in the match?
They did stuff and it was pretty good, with Black looking for the Black Mass and Cody working the knee. There was a spot where Cody got bumped into Arn and knocked him off the apron and Cody went to check on Arn instead of following up (which Arn scolded him for).
The finish saw Cody have Black in the corner and not only ignore the referee’s instructions to back off, but to actually shove the referee when the referee tried to stop him. This should have been a DQ, but wasn’t. Instead, we got Aleister Black using the referee being pushed away to blow mist in Cody’s eyes because apparently we’re still doing that in 2021. Black then rolled Cody up with a small package for the win. Black cheating would have been a lot more effective if Cody hadn’t cheated several times (the Brandi distraction, hair-pulling, not breaking on the referee’s instructions) before that while Black had been wrestling cleanly up until that point. Why is cheating okay when Cody does it but wrong when Black does it?
MIRO VS. SAMMY GUEVARA VIDEO PACKAGE- bad
This started off with Sammy telling us that “winning a match is one thing, but beating down a defenseless man after? That just ain’t right.” You mean that thing that happens seventeen times on every episode of Dynamite, but you haven’t cared about until the time it happened to your friend? Sorry, Sammy, but that’s not how morality works.
Sammy then said that not only would he win the title next week, but he would buy his buddy Fuego del Sol a new car… to replace the one that Miro won fair and square because Fuego wagered it in a match because that was the only way he could get himself a title shot. It must be so nice to be Fuego del Sol and live a life where nothing you do has any negative consequences because someone with lots of disposable income will come along and take pity on you.
DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. FTR (w/Tully Blanchard)- 7.5/10
FTR are 21-2. You’d think that would get you a title shot, but they’ve actually struggled to break the top five, sitting at #5 for the last few weeks. I bet you anything that all of the teams above them other than the Bucks have a much less impressive record than 21-2. And if their records are even more impressive than 21-2, and then it just makes one wonder why none of those teams have gotten a title shot.
This was a great tag match with lots of great twists and turns. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Darby Allin is a great babyface in peril.
AEW WOMEN’S WORLD TITLE MATCH: Dr. Britt Baker, DMD(c) (w/Jamie Hayter & Rebel) vs. Ruby Soho- 7.25/10
They did some big moves and had an exciting match. Dr. Baker won due to interference. Based on what we learned last month with the Young Bucks, the logical thing to do here would be to book a rematch in a cage, but I’ll bet you that doesn’t happen.
This was an awesome episode of Dynamite. It felt like watching a mini-PPV.