La Zona Muerta

“Was the movie really bad or was I just in the wrong mood?” – Tom Servo

Sometimes (read as: often), I feel like a picked a bad time to launch this blog. Not because no one reads any longer… well… YES, because no one reads any longer, but more because I picked a time where the two wrestling companies I like the most, New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling aren’t really turning my crank.

Was Dynamite bad?

Nah.

Do I have anything funny or insightful or clever to say about it?

Nah.

AEW is still pretty weird right now. I’ve said it over and over; it’s still the place with the literal best roster of wrestlers in the world, the place that can interact with nearly ANY major wrestling company save the big one, and it’s still more good than bad.

(Freudian slip edit: the initial version of this post said “Still more bad than good.” Hmmm.)

Yet, despite and nonetheless.

It’s also the place where we now do promos to kick off the show, where a sexagenarian full of more chemicals than a Monsato display at Disneyland runs down to help drive off the bad guys, and we now announce the big, blow off gimmick match… but we don’t have any idea of who will be in it.

I was enjoying the Elite / Swerve interaction for the most part (still baffled by the Blood and Guts announcement and challenge… what’s the point? Maybe if they were putting something on the line like their EVP status or somesuch… but we have no indication of that. They just threw out a challenge. At least that all but confirms Swerve is winning at Forbidden Door, yes? No? Oh, well) but then, of course, the Acclaimed, an act who has not only jumped the shark, but did a fucking TRIPLE GAINER over it came out to save the day. Then suddenly, here comes other old guy, Dustin Rhodes, to do his match with Jack Perry. I know they’re trying to do that thing where one segment seamlessly rolls into another, and I think they accomplished that later with the six man tag and WIllow Nightingale, but here it just rang false to me. Speaking of Rhodes, while I’m on the soapbox, I may as well rant about him cutting half of his old man’s “Hard Times” promo on Collision last weekend. I already heard that promo, chief, and it was delivered A LOT BETTER than the shambling mess you made of it. By the end of the Collision promo, it sounded like Rhodes was putting his career on the line against Perry, but unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. When that match finally started, I could feel my brain shut down, like the prompt on your computer. “Do you want to save this file you’re working on? This program that is currently open is preventing close down.” I felt myself disintegrate, my consciousness waver. Is this life?

You can tell the point where I got out my Ipad to start doodling.

Speaking of that six man match, boy, that was a lot of fun. If they don’t want to always deliver the one on one matches we crave, why can’t we get more stuff like this? Mark Briscoe making everyone corpse backstage was one of those fun moments you can only really get on a live wrestling show without it feeling forced. Hope they don’t suddenly start TRYING to do that every week, as is so often the case when something is funny in wrestling.

Big yay and thumbs up to Shingo Takagi being here for a little while whenever the Owen Cup finally starts. Let’s face it; the Owen tournament the first couple of years wasn’t all that great. Shingo being around helps tremendously and although he won’t win, at least it makes it seem like the AEW / NJPW partnership is more than a couple of cats coming over in June every year.

Predictably, the main event, Will Ospreay vs. Rey Fenix was great, just a super match… but can someone please tell me something?

The Mexaking himself

Why is it that Rey Fenix, literally the best, most complete luchadore in the world, is just seen in this promotion as “guy who can have a great match with anyone” and nothing else? His previous International Title win was a fluke due to injury and one where he had to drop the belt pretty much immediately due to an injury of his own. Sure, there are luchadores more spectacular than him or more charismatic than him (altho’ he holds his own in both of those departments), but there is no one more consistent than him and no one better at being the complete package, so it bums me out that AEW doesn’t slot him a bit higher. A LOT higher.

You can’t call a Dynamite with matches like that main event and that six man bad. I wouldn’t even call it unfocussed… they moved things slightly forward for Forbidden Door, laid some bait for Rampage and Collision, set up (sort of) a Blood and Guts for a month and a half from now for a Dynamite, established MJF and RUSH for next week (they seem to be swinging for the fences next week, in fact)… but there’s still a sort of slapdash quality to the show that’s difficult to put a finger on. There was a time where this show was unmissable, untouchable. I’m not one of these people who will sit here and tell you everything in AEW was better in 2019… it wasn’t… but I long for the time where Dynamite was excellent top to bottom every single week and left you frantic for more.