 | |
| Evil Uno rained his terror down on the end of Dynamite Screenshot via AEW YouTube |
Hangman Page's Seasonal Affective Disorder - Apparently, Hangman Page and Kenny Omega haven't been in sync lately, a fact that wasn't readily apparent last week, which only means that I probably had to watch, ugh, Being the Elite to pick that up. I WILL NEVER WATCH THAT YOUTUBE SHOW, DO YOU HEAR ME? Of course, Page having a sad is so far the first pertinent character development fodder that Jim Ross has picked up on in between ranting about rules or giving general sports aphorisms about a roster he probably should know intimately by now. Ross doesn't get kudos for finally doing something he should have been doing since Double or Nothing; it helps that the character development has been mostly of the "tell, don't show" variety. So much of AEW's storytelling to date has relied on Excalibur saying things and both Ross and Tony Schiavone blindly agreeing with him. The commentary and the lack of cohesion in the narrative structure are the two biggest problems with AEW to date.
Perhaps the third of these fatal flaws in AEW so far is the fact that the Elite guys are a bit too giving when it comes to putting people over. WWE has been on top for so long that you'd have to forgive people if they didn't know someone from, say, New Japan Pro Wrestling, TNA/Impact, or even World Championship Wrestling or Extreme Championship Wrestling back in the day. I'm not sure how much of a nationwide footprint Ring of Honor or New Japan have. The Being The Elite YouTube channel shows an average of 200,000 viewers per video with a few spikes into half-a-million range. Given the disparity between those numbers and the ratings, which put Dynamite at about 800,000 viewers a week live (and possibly more on DVR or YouTube). Going even further into the demogrpahics, WWE has the corner on old fans, while AEW is attracting the younger ones, ones who may not use their free time to be all-in on following wrestling. Regardless of how many of those young'uns are hardcore, longtime fans who love Omega, Page, and the Young Bucks, it's possible that those Elite guys (sans Cody) are just as established as names as guys like Joey Janela or MJF. To their credit in terms of brand-building and their detriment in terms of familiarity, there are a shitload of fans who are just getting used to seeing the Bucks and company.
That's why having the Bucks and Omega being so giving from the outset, though noble in intention, may not have been the best call. Going back to the problems with other angles, when the Bucks say they're the best tag team in the world, it's all talk and no substance. Judging from the disparity in numbers between BTE and Dynamite, the average viewer doesn't know the Young Bucks from the Mulkeys. Sure, they're in front of all the press and give speeches, but if they're just as run-of-the-mill in the tag division as Private Party, what does the latter's win over the former really mean? WWE takes the building of its top guys too far, but AEW so far isn't going far enough with the right people, or at least some of the right people.
Cody, Jon Moxley, and Chris Jericho are the only real established big-time players that AEW has because they have WWE experience. I hate that that has to be currency right now, but the way WWE destroyed the market, ravaging the territories and forcing the talent it didn't vacuum up to coalesce into a nationwide promotion like WCW has made it that way. The business has changed, and AEW got fans to tune in right away. The fluctuation in numbers since the million-viewer debut is to be expected, and television habits are changing with the advance of post-live viewing that has only been reinforced by the advent of streaming services with on-demand options. Maybe a million people are still watching Dynamite (much like WWE's numbers may be artificially depressed), but they're not watching live. That being said, it's also possible that some viewers are being driven away if guys like Omega and the Bucks (moreso the Bucks, tbh) keep being presented as the best, most important wrestlers in words but with nothing but losses in the most important matches.
One could argue that in this situation, the booking might have justified the Lucha Bros. getting the win over the Elite lads, and honestly, the Luchas are another group whose reputation with management might be bigger than what it is with the greater audience. But refusing to build a guy like Omega as the worldbeater he was in New Japan at least within the first year of AEW's existence feels like a huge mistake and makes losses like these stick out even more, kinda like with the Eagles losing two games on dropped catches to the Falcons and Lions making their third lost game on a dropped catch against the Patriots sting more than it should have.
I hate talking about booking so much when the wrestling behind it is incredible. Once again, Dynamite kicked off with a stellar match. A lot has been said and written about Omega over his career, but him being put on television in with time constraints has really enhanced his game. It helps that Page can keep up with him and his opponents are among the best in the world going today. Pentagón, Jr.'s flashy taunting, especially his little jive walk that he does, really up the entertainment value, even if I'm not sure the intended audience is supposed to boo them. Rey Feníx is also everything people say Will Ospreay is. OF course, the verbal tease of dissension between the two Elite members ended up costing them the match, and I thought they were going to come to blows the way their confrontation went down.
Then PAC interrupted right as the fight was about to get good with reiterating his demands from last week for a rubber match with Omega and holding Michael Nakazawa hostage in order to get said demands. It was an awkward cut, and having the payoff being the Luchas ambushing Omega as he charged back to save his friend happen during the picture-in-picture was a poor decision. Having the PIP for matches is fine, but you need to have commercial breaks so your audience can go to the bathroom without fear of missing anything important in terms of story advancement. Overall, while AEW has things like wrestling and star-building down, it has a lot to learn when it comes to production. WWE's production is awful, but they set a benchmark in some important areas. I'm not even sure AEW is even to that floor-level ceiling yet.
Darby Allin, the Chosen One - Cody and Darby Allin taking on The Butcher and The Blade
Also, Andy Williams, no, I'm sorry, The Butcher really does look like a butcher out there. He's a throwback to a simpler time where you didn't have to be good as a wrestler, you just had to be fearsome. I'm not saying he's a bad wrestler (I think he rules, to be honest), but I do think he evokes a certain unsophisticated charm of old bruisers like George Steele, whose style is less refined kicks and MMA-influence and more "I'm gonna maul you like I'm a grizzly bear and you're a tourist coming too close to my cubs." Overall, in three appearances in AEW, all three members of this group have come off so much better than in the indies or in the case of Allie, in the company thus far. I think having a purpose helps them whereas other wrestlers who flourish in places like Beyond can just go out and wrestle for wrestling's sake.
Then you have Cody, who really was at the throbbing center of the whole issue. You still the dichotomy of rich jerk asshole boss who cuts promos saying MJF is bad because he's not as rich as him and the lover of wrestling Grandson of a Plumber who is helping to make one of his youngest and most talented dudes, Allin, into one of the vanguard of the new generation of bigtime pro wrestlers. Thankfully, the former was only in play with Ross running happy propagandist press interference saying that he "heard" MJF had to put his Rolex up as collateral to get A Butcher, A Blade, A Bunny, PANAMA! to work with him. But the latter feels like it'll be the first meaningful time Cody has put someone over in AEW that wasn't already established. He went to a draw with Allin at Fyter Fest, his Rocky moment, and Allin only agreed to be his partner with the promise of another match if they won. With the next match scheduled, the right thing to do would be for Cody to give Allin his Rocky 2 moment.
Stop Letting Brandi Talk, Plz - Women got two matches on this episode, and they both featured appearances by Brandi Rhodes' Nightmare Collective. Take that for what it's worth. The first match saw Awesome Kong squish poor Miranda Alize in the time it takes most people to grab something for dessert. Rhodes promised she'd make Kris Statlander join her
HE DID IT! - Of course Jungle Boy was going to go the distance with Chris Jericho. Some things you don't watch for the suspense but for the execution. Mainly, it was watching Jericho go up against himself from 1997, the Thrillseeker who threw caution to the wind and his body recklessly at a larger and more powerful opponent. It was fun seeing Jericho play the role of Pit Bull #2. He threw his weight around considerably. Seeing Jericho be the guy to throw around the big lariats or slamming down the Vader-stiff powerbombs can be whiplash for someone who just came back after a 20-year hiatus. For those longer-term viewers, the change was gradual enough to get used to. In order for Jungle Boy to stand out, he had to do more than just bump hard. There's a reason why WWE hasn't trusted Dolph Ziggler with anything more than a cup of coffee with a big title. He needed to jump from the floor all the the way up into a springboard headscissors into a victory roll. He didn't just survive; he thrived. I doubt the next match between the two will end up like how Allin/Cody II should. However, I wouldn't be surprised if a little further down the road, Jericho wasn't helping to make Jungle Boy into a huger star.
Before the main event Shawn Spears and Tully Blanchard are looking for a tag partner. Hopefully, they do one in the form of a game show like American Idol. I'm kidding. OR AM I?
THE ORDER IS DARK - So earlier in the show, the announce team noticed that a stinger at the bottom of the screen promoting the Dark Order and its website came up, and they literally were silent for at least 30 seconds. They were BEFUDDLED, even Excalibur. It seemed to be foreshadowing for how the show ended in more ways than one, because the Order showing up, introducing officially John Silver and Alex Reynolds as members, and cannibalizing the Bucks, SCU, and the rest of The Elite with their unnamed creepers, went over like a wet fart for some people. I thought it was a good way to end the show, but a lot of the critiques that I can see as valid tied into what was mentioned above. If you want to show Omega as The Guy, shouldn't he be able to overcome all those unnamed indie dudes in masks? Maybe if he gave a bunch of the NPC guys V-Triggers and then got felled by Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, or even one of the Beaver Boys, maybe it would've gone over a bit better. That being said, I'm all for the better of the two cults cutting in line, even if I thought the Bucks should've won so they could have dropped the Tag Team Championships to Santana and Ortiz at Revolution. Also, Uno sticking his fingers in Matt Jackson's mouth at the end and making him bleed was a great touch. If you're going to have blood, having the occult guys be the ones who can draw it on command is how to go. As for the match preceding it, obviously, it was a satisfying cap to the show. SCU and the Bucks have been doing this for over a decade with each other. Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian. I'd have been shocked if they didn't close the show with a bang.
Dynamite is off next week, and I won't be around for the New Year's Day show. All in all, I think this year was a successful one for AEW's flagship show. I harp on the negatives a bit because I think that there's a lot of room for improvement, especially on the world-building and storytelling aspects of the show. That being said, where it shines, especially in contrast to WWE's weekly slogs, it shines so bright that I think it's eminently worth your time. I mean, if Corpus Christi can react to the show all the way through, you know they're doing something right.
