If ever there was a Dynamite to feature your absolute best talent on and treat as Saturday Night’s Main Event (i.e. a substantial part of the audience is brand new, they haven’t a clue what’s happening, they’re seeing numerous people for the first time, therefore tell them) this was it. Instead the match quality was mostly poor throughout the night, featuring a lot of green wrestlers that would have been better off remaining on Dark Elevation, which isn’t ideal when you’ve got a load of new eyeballs checking out your roster.
But match quality can be largely overlooked to an extent if you deliver and advance on the reason the majority of people would have been tuning in to begin with, which was clearly CM Punk. They didn’t do anything remotely stupid thank god (like have him start brawling with Allin or worse, Sting) and they’ve given us his debut (the beginning) and what we’re getting at the end (Darby Allin) but what’s happening in the middle? In what way was the feud for Allin furthered on this show? Dynamite last night was stasis in that regard, as Punk went out and gave a similar interview to Friday. That’s not necessarily bad by any means as he’s so compelling to listen to but if you missed Punk here, you didn’t really miss anything. And it’s not like they have a long road either, they’ve only got 2 episodes of Dynamite until All Out. Anyone coming to Dynamite for the first time expecting something more than what they got on YouTube or Rampage over the weekend got the same thing (the take-away from Punk’s promo wasn’t added intrigue for Punk vs Allin, it was for the unintended acknowledgment of Daniel Bryan). If you can watch Punk’s debut but then skip to his match at All Out and still find yourself in the same place as you were 2 weeks prior it means your programming inbetween was disposable. They could have educated viewers as to what Allin is all about, his relationship with Sting, what he’s got to prove against Punk, how he’s out to ruin Punk’s debut party (because is there a man alive that expects him to win?)…basically anything to further build to the match was absent. Where was his promo?
I often wonder if the PPVs are the pay off these days (MJF and Jericho is still going, with matches that in the past would have been the blow off - such as War Games and Stadium Stampede - being in the middle).
JD Drake reminded me of a cross between Bubba Rogers and Roadkill.
Aew Dark To Tape Most Weeks At Universal Studios In Orlando
AEW will be taping their Dark program at Universal Studios in Orlando.
Dave Meltzer confirmed that Dark will tape most weeks at Universal Studios, and will be open to the public. It was originally reported by Andrew Zarian that they will be taping at a sound stage, similar to the Impact Wrestling tapings that used to take place years ago.
Going forward, Dark will not be taped on the road. Two episodes of Dark were taped last Friday at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, with the second episode set to air on August 31.
The move comes as AEW has added a fourth weekly show to their lineup, Rampage, that airs Fridays on TNT. While Rampage will air live occasionally, it will usually be taped following the live broadcast of AEW Dynamite. AEW Dark: Elevation will be taped prior to Dynamite.
Dark usually features squash matches between established AEW stars and local talent, with occasional matches between AEW stars. The show airs every Tuesday at 7 pm ET on YouTube.
If it wasn't used for filling a TV timeslot, I'd scrap NXT as a TV show and take it back to the FCW affiliated dev terrority model. NXT is totally redundant as a means of showing the next generation of talent. As soon as they get to the main roster, anything that happened in NXT is completely written off with the stars being completely repackaged into mostly garbage.
If you look at all the top spots on the main roster, I don't think there is hardly anyone that has come through the NXT system and done well. You'd have to go back to 2016 with the four horse women who were really the last ones to break through. 5 years on, it just isn't working, largely because it's designed not to work.
Guys like Adam Cole, Kross, Walter etc should have been called up years ago and should be main eventing main roster shows now. Walter in particular is baffling as he is incredible but is largely unknown to the main audience.
For the fans, watching NXT is a waste of time for anything other than seeing a couple of decent matches which I'd rather were on Raw.
Of all the returns and shocks recently, Murdoch beating Aldis for the NWA title is up there for me! Has me suspecting that Aldis may be going elsewhere. Also Velvet Sky is the worst commentator of all time.
Slimgrady wrote:Of all the returns and shocks recently, Murdoch beating Aldis for the NWA title is up there for me! Has me suspecting that Aldis may be going elsewhere. Also Velvet Sky is the worst commentator of all time.
This may be a pure taste thing, but I absolutely love Murdoch won the title. He is just the absolute carbon copy of what I thought a pro wrestler was when I was 7. Plus he cuts a great classic late 80s promo and his ring work is workman like. My other NWA fav is Tim Storm, I really wish they didn't have that clause against Aldis which means he can't fight for the title again.
I think Aldis will win it back, if I was him I'd stay in NWA as I wouldn't trust AEW or anywhere else to book him like a modern Flair, which is his basic gimmick. And let's face it, it probably isn't good business to have a modern Flair.
Really sad that she seemingly had nobody or very few people looking out for her. I’ve not seen much of her since she was injured in TNA a number of years ago, which appears to be where the decline started having apparently suffered repeat concussions. I don’t think they treated her very well at all by the looks of it, while also repeatedly looking for excuses not to pay her mounting medical bills. She ended up filing a lawsuit against them which was eventually settled out of court in 2013.
Rather reminiscent in some ways of Ashley Massaro, who also committed suicide in 2019.
Oh no. I did see before I went to bed the other night they were trying to find her and the likes of Mick Foley was signal boosting but I thought I read that they had gotten to her family and found her in time...
Last edited by Johnny Ryall on Fri Sep 03, 2021 9:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
KK wrote:Really sad that she seemingly had nobody or very few people looking out for her. I’ve not seen much of her since she was injured in TNA a number of years ago, which appears to be where the decline started having apparently suffered repeat concussions. I don’t think they treated her very well at all by the looks of it, while also repeatedly looking for excuses not to pay her mounting medical bills. She ended up filing a lawsuit against them which was eventually settled out of court in 2013.
Rather reminiscent in some ways of Ashley Massaro, who also committed suicide in 2019.
In my personal experience people often don't take mental health issues seriously until a cry for help like this. Especially people that haven't really had to deal with them before.
Even when there is a cry for help sometimes people are just like "Go see a doctor" rather than "I'm going to look out for you, you matter to me"
Return_of_the_STAR wrote:Just caught some clips of last night. Sounds amazing.
Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole! Ruby Riot! The crowd was so amazingly hot
They definitely threw the kitchen sink at it! I caught a highlights video on YouTube and it looks an absolutely amazing event. Can only imagine Fox will be even more pissed at WWE!
Pretty much perfect booking all round with some high quality matches.
Edit: Absolutely hate Bryan's new music mix. Probably the worst one AEW have done, and they have been excellent in that regard.
