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| Mox talked the talk last week and walked the walk this week Screenshot via AEW YouTube |
No Respect for Authority - The streak of straight bangers to open Dynamite continued week eight with Nick Jackson taking on Rey Feníx. It couldn't have been a tag even if they kayfabe wanted it; the commentary solemnly stated that he was out after being powerbombed last week through the stage. Anyway, once again, the show opened with the best match on the show, which is kinda what you need if you want to keep viewers hooked for that all important live rating number, I suppose. I don't want to call it the platonic ideal of a high-flying match, because Feníx's feet failed him a couple of times, starting with his exit out of the tunnel. That being said, I'm not really as hard on the high flyers for that kind of thing as long as they're not always out of position. Anyway, this match was a lot of slick counters and flips wrapped around a central theme worked around the superkick, namely Feníx matching Jackson on those kicks. The theme culminated with both wrestlers going for a kick only to have Feníx kick Jackson's leg (outta his leg!) on his attempt. It was rudimentary psychology, but it worked.
What I thought was surprising was that Feníx went over clean rather than having Jackson play into Proud and Powerful losing to Private Party later on be short-term retaliation. It's refreshing in that Jackson, an EVP, isn't afraid to lose clean, and that it rewards viewing more than that particular show. Jackson didn't need P and P to cost him the match to have something to go for later in the night. All he needed was the animosity from last week and further back. You don't need to have too much in terms of finishing matches. Overall, it was the perfect way to open this week's Dynamite. Of course, the Lucha Brother had to keep his rudo credentials by refusing a handshake from the younger Jackson. He and his brother are immersed in a feud with SCU at the moment, but that doesn't mean AEW won't go with Bucks/Bros IV somewhere down the line. At least I THINK they're on match four.
Disrespecting the Dentist - Hey, did you know Britt Baker is a dentist? I think that's something that they've undersold going forward. Even the fans were chanting it. Weird. As is the case with most shows she appears on, her match on this week's Dynamite was a weak spot. Not even Hikaru Shida could save her, and good lord, she tried. Baker has cool moves, but as most discerning wrestling fans will tell you, cool moves don't make you a good wrestler. They're just shining beacons of hope in a cold sea in a ship captained by someone on their first voyage. AEW backed themselves into a corner with their rankings having featured Baker so much in victory in the run-up to Full Gear, and I think they knew it. They put her entire first control segment in the picture-in-picture box during commercial. Hopefully, Shida is Riho's next challenger. Let Riho run through everyone who ever worked in a joshi promotion before she invariably drops the title to Awesome Kong.
The Dark Order - NOT A CULT! - The next thing up was a slickly filmed vignette that started out like it was AEW's run into the Be A Star anti-bullying campaign, but once the bearded protagonist got onto the train, it became readily evident that the company finally had something for the Dark Order to do other than lose. Their infomercial playing on the subway screen gave them purpose. Rather than presenting as a mindless cult, they're a cult that makes you a better person. Maybe not by accident, the messaging hit on all the notes that predatory organizations play to grow their ranks. It's preying on vulnerable people by promising them impossible power to smite their enemies. It's how you create a legion. It remains to be seen if that messaging will get anyone on the roster to join other than local indie guys they slap the mask on.
STOP MESSING UP BILLY GUNN'S FUN - The Dynamite Dozen Battle Royale may have been AEW's most on-the-nose homage to World Championship Wrestling yet, promising a match that would not end with one winner but instead generate two challengers for the next week's show on Thanksgiving Eve in Chicago. They didn't go full-TNA with the nonsense, and they either loosened or tugged on quite a few threads to make the coming weeks on Wednesday nights a little more interesting, but it certainly was the most WCW idea they've had so far. Take that for what you want. Anyway, the competitors were Pentagón, Jr., Sonny Kiss (making his Dynamite debut), Jimmy Havoc, Kip Sabian, Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, Joey Janela, Marko Stunt, Jungle Boy, eventual finalists Hangman Page and MJF, and Billy Gunn. In case you want a calibration for how small in stature most wrestlers on the AEW roster are, just rewatch this match and marvel at how much bigger Gunn is than anyone else in that match. It goes to show how much more WWE values height and weight than AEW does. But I digress.
Like I noted above, this battle royale had a lot of stuff in it, which really decides the quality of a battle royale more than any other factor. You want to grab the audience's attention; you don't need to work a hold or do a big head-drop to do so. They started out hot with Christopher Daniels this time dressing up as Feníx to eliminate Penta right from jump. Jimmy Havoc got eliminated and then got pissed enough to grab his staple gun and plant one on everyone else in the ring. Shoutout to Taylor who took a staple to the penis. Never let anyone tell you Sexy Chuckie T isn't all in. Shawn Spears continued his harassment of Janela by illegally eliminating him. The only bad part about that one is that it happened during the commercial break. The finish with MJF pulling a 1994 Shawn Michaels and winning after going through the ropes rather than under was well done.
However, MJF wasn't so much the star for that finish but for the stuff that led up to it involving Gunn. First, Kiss started twerking in front of him, so Gunn, who's an ass man, decided he'd join in until MJF went and ruined the fun by tossing Kiss. Then, Cassidy started going into his routine with Gunn before MJF attacked and threw Freshly Squeezed to the floor. Honestly, if some rich jerk came into my personal space and ruined my fun, I would be pissed too. While MJF ate a Fame Asser for his troubles, he came out with the last laugh. Of course, Gunn's battle royale ended in perfect synergy with the Ass Man being eliminated by Mr. Cowboy Shit himself, Hangman Page. Overall, it was a fun match. Hopefully, Page and MJF next week will be just as fun, or at least good.
JERICHO SEASON! SKY SEASON! - Honestly, you can name anyone else, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, whatever, and you could have a case for the best promo guy ever. More and more, as much as I love/loved those guys on the microphone, what Chris Jericho is doing feels like the most impressive feat of speaking in wrestling history. While his cadence and tone have not changed much since he was "The Paragon of Virtue" in Extreme Championship Wrestling (shouts to Scorpio Sky for putting that into his response), he's continued to cleverly change the material so that he's never cutting "The Jericho Promo." His creativity and versatility are probably what puts him over the top. Even down to having the only word Jake Hager has spoken into the microphone in AEW so far being "sorry" as a proxy for him saying it, Jericho feels like the closest thing to a verbal genius in the business there is, and he's still sharp after years of accumulating CTE.
The "reverse psychology" bit with SCU conning Jericho into giving Sky a title match next week was an even better cap. It wasn't just good because the speaking execution was on point; it's common knowledge that all four guys, even the weakest one in Sky, could talk. The framing, however, made it pop out. If you see a heel getting rope-a-doped like that in WWE, it's because Vince McMahon sees them as disposable. You'd see Damien Sandow get fooled into defending a title (if he ever held one on the main roster), but would you see Triple H or Brock Lesnar or The Fiend? Well, if you think so, you've got more faith in the flexibility in character archetype that McMahon believes in than I. Jericho put himself out there, and it helped create a match that the folks in the Sears Centre will probably get so hot for that they'll melt the steel beam supports in the arena. Wrestling fan reactions burn way hotter than jet fuel.
About the only miss for me was how the run-in by Marko Stunt and the subsequent backup from his Jurassic Express buddies to bail out SCU was framed. Jericho's entrance from the back through the halls was shown on the PIP, but the sound was muted so the commercials could have it. Yay capitalism, yuck. Jericho had an encounter with Stunt, but it would've been cool to have heard what they were saying. The fact that Luchasaurus just so happened to have a 15 second squash win over Pretty Peter Avalon right after felt a little to convenient. It's a minor thing, but it still felt off.
The Grind - I was looking forward to Private Party vs. Proud and Powerful a lot because they're two exciting teams that came up from the same wrestling circles and probably know their way around each other. The match fell mostly flat because instead of working a high energy match, they went the route of having PnP just grind them down most of the match. Private Party had some exciting offense, including the best Gin n Juice they hit since the one on the Young Bucks, but I think about 75 percent of the match was a heat segment. Maybe it's me having different expectations for the match; I mean, it did get across what it needed to get across. That being said, I'm not sure PnP are suited to be grinders.
The aforementioned Jackson run-in was less interference to directly cause the Party to win. Rather, he swooped in to snatch the sock full of nickels or beads or whatever is in it, and abscond with it so that PnP couldn't use it to win the match. Of course, it directly led to the distraction that the Party used to hit the Gin n Juice. Afterwards, both the rest of the Inner Circle sans Jericho and Dustin Rhodes came out, and they had a big ol' brawl. One thing is I don't think I wanna see Rhodes' submission onto Sammy Guevara's vlog. Speaking of The Elite, Kenny Omega cut a promo in the midst of lifting and didn't embarrass himself. Baby steps!
Jon Moxley Wins... FATALITY - Judging from Darby Allin's entrance starting with a pre-tape of him carrying a bodybag throughout a city and culminating with a bunch of guys carrying him into the arena in said bodybag, you knew this match was going to be lit from the start. Allin obliged those expectations by leaping at him from the ring while he was entering through the crowd. Basically, the match had Mox playing the big bully, the body guy using his size to overwhelm Allin. Meanwhile, no matter how much shit Allin got kicked out of him, he kept popping up with the manic energy of a jilted husband going after the guy who fucked his wife while they were still married. There was no measure to his fists and elbows; it was all reckless abandon. And when he wasn't getting the shit kicked out of him or attacking, he was floating like a butterfly. The two wrestlers' strategies during the match melded together to put an exclamation point on this week's episode.
But it wasn't just the broad strokes that defined this match's excellence. The little things were in play like Allin working over Mox's hand. Things like placing it in the turnbuckle link and then shoving Mox off the top rope seem simple, but why hasn't anyone thought to do it before? Allin isn't even 25 years old yet and he's already got ring-savvy of someone traveling the territories for a decade. Mox bringing in the bodybag and hoisting Allin by his own petard was a nice touch as well as him countering the Coffin Drop by moving back and catching Allin in a rear naked choke. Also, I know Allin has a death wish, but man, he didn't have to take that Death Rider at such a high angle. Still, I think he's not satisfied unless someone in the crowd thinks he's died. It's not what I'd do, and he might need to dial it back, but I won't pretend that he doesn't make every bump he takes look great if not for him then for his opponent.
