La Zona Muerta

When I previewed / recapped Wrestling Observer Live, I would typically write a review of Dynamite every week as it would generally be the main topic discussed on Thursdays. Dunno if I’ll do that every week here (god knows I would have driven the handful of people that have discovered this place so far away if I had let loose with the raw stream of invective I had about last week’s Dyna) but last night’s episode was a strong one and a fairly good “go home” show (meaning the last episode before a pay per view, meant to get you to watch), even if there are three more hours of AEW TV to go before Sunday.

The show started with Jon Moxley essentially putting out a of letter of intent in regards to being the new IWGP champion (in other words, the champion of New Japan Pro Wrestling). I won’t really get into how angry it makes me for an absentee champion that I don’t particularly care for to be the champion of New Japan right now, but it’s very clear to AEW audiences that Mox is their guy, and him being back adds stability and a certain amount of AEW-ness, for lack of a better term, to the show. He promised to back up his friends in the Blackpool Combat Club against the vile Don Callis and his “family” of goons, calling out Powerhouse Hobbs for next week. If you like Mox, you liked this, I suspect.

Immediately after this, Mercedes Moné did a backstage promo, which, given her performance the past couple of weeks, was probably for the best. Although it still had that WWE-style repetition (“I’m the CEO because that’s what CEOs do”), it was short, to the point and largely fine. Moné, as far as I’m concerned, has been a big dud so far; her hovering horde of fans seeming to be bigger fans of her as Sasha Banks than of her endeavors as Mercedes Moné, but once she is cleared to wrestle, hopefully her presence won’t feel quite as onerous. “I’m the CEO and I’m under contractual obligation!”

This led to the mixed tag match with Ed- er… Adam Copeland with Willow Nightingale and Brody King with Julia Hart. It was fine. Look, when Edge is on TV, it’s very much not for me. He says he came to AEW because of the opportunities to wrestle new folks but realistically, WWE paid him a GIGANTIC amount of money to come out of retirement when AEW came sniffing around, didn’t get back a gigantic return, let him go and now, here he is. Moné came out to make the save at the end when the baddies were menacing Willow… BUT WHO CAN SHE TRUST? The final eyeroll for me was Moné and Edge sharing a little “I respect you ’cause we’re WWE pals” handshake. Oh, well.

Samoa Joe, in a backstage interview, pointed out Swerve Strickland is a choke artist. Well…

A video package for FTR started to play, but thank goodness, the Young Bucks, the true heroes of their program with FTR, intervened, forcing Tony Khan to ditch the package and instead switch to their entrance in real time. I’ve never been a huge Bucks guy but I recognize how good they are, if that makes sense. However, this version of the Bucks, leaning into what dummies online say about them? It’s great. Adding Kazuchika Okada to the act? Love it. They had a tremendous trios match with PAC, Pentagon Jr. (too lazy to type the other thing) and young Daniel Garcia, who was obviously there to eat the pin, but it’s okay in that it’s not hurting the kid; it’s building him up. I’ve seen some people bag on the fact that Okada is being “wasted” in this role, fighting PAC, etc. Nonsense. They’ve set him up in a perfect way to explain why he isn’t immediately challenging for the AEW heavyweight title; he’s too busy being a dick with his dickhead pals the Young Bucks. Also… if you live in a world where you think a match with PAC is a “waste,” I don’t want to live in that world with you. Anyway, the trios match was fantastic and apparently will spill over into Collision as well, with the Elite vs. FTR / PAC.

It was finally time for the announced segment that by FAR brought me the most mirth: TAZ BROKERS A MEETING BETWEEN CHRIS JERICHO AND HOOK. Yes, that’s what this portion of the show was billed as.

Good Lord.

Anyway, Jericho is now self aware, talking about “the Jericho Vortex” and whatever else, gassing on about being the “learning tree.” HOOK is like “you suck.” Jericho is all but BEGGING for HOOK to listen to him and finally gets frustrated, knocking Taz, HOOK’s father, down into the ropes. Taz can’t really bump anymore and has been retired for twenty years, so him doing something a tiny bit physical was actually pretty interesting. HOOK DEMANDED Jericho leave the ring, and good old Tony Khan, always quick on the trigger, set up a match for the PPV. Look, this Jericho stuff is death, but the deal with pushing Taz made it slightly more palatable. The fact that Jericho is now self aware is no bueno, but I’ve been sick of him for quite some time, now. The fact that he’s leaning into the fanbases’ collective fatigue… I don’t quite think that’s the reinvention of his character he seems to think it is.

Swerve promised to answer Joe’s accusations of him being a choke artist in the main event interview segment tonight.

Mariah May fought Deonna Purrazzo and some stuff happened with Timeless Toni and Thunder Rosa. Look, none of this is for me. Rosa is a fraction of how over she used to be, the Toni stuff is cute in some ways and incredibly overbearing in every other way possible, I’ve never cared for Purrazzo and her awful, mewling, tremulous promos that sound like she’s about to burst into tears every second and people keep assuring me Mariah May is good but I’ve yet to see it. Shrug.

Bullet Club Gold called out the Acclaimed for a match. God, what a fucking WASTE of Jay White.

The Acclaimed accepted the invitation for the match (good thing they didn’t run into each other). God, what a WASTE of a team that got over organically and now are completely insufferable. I blame big, bloated Billy Gunn, a guy fired from WWE for using too many steroids. Imagine THAT. Someone please save my man Anthony Bowens from the garbage fire the Acclaimed has become. Maybe have him leave and join Bullet Club. Can’t believe I just typed that in 2024.

Orange Cassidy and Shane Taylor had a fun big guy / little guy match, but it was there largely to further the “Trent Baretta is a baddie now” stuff as Shane Taylor Promotions laid out OC post match and Baretta prevented any of OC’s friends from coming to the rescue. Honestly, I hope this leads to Chuck Taylor turning evil and rejoining Trent as well.

We got a first time ever match up for our in ring main event; Will Ospreay vs. Claudio Castagnoli Unsurprisingly, the two of them had a terrific match, just action packed and full of greatness. I have friends who are very upset because they have decided that AEW will be crowning Ospreay as champion in August at Wembley… but man… he’s not missed yet. Every match, every promo… the guy’s got it. I get not wanting someone to come in and immediately be anointed as “the guy” or what have you… but Ospreay is the guy. The end of the match was significant, leading to a brawl between BCC and the Don Callis Family, and Will Ospreay being a bit pissed off about that, so they are already sowing the seeds of descension, there, which makes sense as the Callis Family are all reprehensible heels and Ospreay is, for now, a bright eyed, bushy tailed good guy.

Joe and Swerve had one more chance to hype up their match. Again, I know people who think this match hasn’t been well built, or think Swerve isn’t ready or a hundred other things… but Swerve is the man of the hour and his time is now to become champion. He needed to kill it on this promo and he did… and then he did something incredible… the story is Joe is the biggest badass in the world, but he’s secretly a cowardly bully, so he’s ostensibly being “held back” by a half dozen security guards. Swerve vaulted over the ring, flipped and somehow landed essentially on his feet, toppling everyone. There’s been a million spots like this in wrestling throughout time immemorial, but my meager description isn’t really doing it justice… Swerve just SPLATTERED these men, landing on him the way he did. It was a tremendous visual. Joe, of course, got the upper hand and laid Swerve out, leaving the PPV match in jeopardy. The only thing I’m worried about is that somehow Hangman Adam Page shows up and costs Swerve the win. I think that’d be a huge mistake, but we’ll see what happens on Sunday.

Unlike last week, this Dyanamite was fun and set the stage well for the PPV. I did order the show, so perhaps I’ll write about it on Monday. I dunno if the feeling was totally restored, but it mostly felt like a good episode of Dynamite, so that’s good enough for me.