La Zona Muerta

After a tremendous pay per view, man, Dynamite left me cold. There were a couple of good things, but… I have to be honest… most everything was mediocre to awful. I don’t really have a lot to say about the show. I would rather talk about the good stuff, but in brief:

Mariah May grinding and moaning in ring begging for Mira Shirakawa to show up after an average (or even below average) match is DEATH. Mariah May is AWFUL. Her presentation sucks, she’s not experienced enough to be the kind of heel she wants to portray. It feels like everything is in a holding pattern until Toni Storm returns and it’s a snooze.

Chris Jericho attempting to redo old WWE angles, predictably, is AWFUL. They took a potentially fun premise (dumping seven thousand dollars’ worth of change on Jericho’s fancy new car) and made it look dirt rotten. The car didn’t even look damaged as Mark Briscoe dumped a bulldozer scoop full of change on it! Honestly, it didn’t even seem like there was all that much change! OH NO, BETTER GET MAACO. I couldn’t care less about Chris Jericho’s fucking CAR.

I won’t say Ricochet is awful… but I don’t think he’s remotely delivered, at least thus far… and I realize you don’t bring in a guy to immediately beat him, but something rubbed me the wrong way about him going over Sammy Guevara, a guy who LITERALLY WRESTLED THE FIRST MATCH EVER IN AEW. Eh. A lot of people have a lot of dumb misconceptions about AEW (they just do flips, no stories, five stars in the Tokyo Dome, etc.) and a dude like Ricochet… I don’t know if he does anything to beat the allegations, if you see what I mean. At best, for ME, he’s gonna have to do a LOT to get the Fed stink off of him. I dread him and Will Ospreay finally having a match and attempting to recreate the dumb flippy, semi-viral spot where they both cartwheel past each other and land in the superhero / Iron Man pose. One will fuck it up, and then it will be BOTCHY GIF TIME forever.

Now, the good stuff… the backstage stuff with Hangman Adam Page was EXCELLENT. I wanted him to be mean to Renee and make her uncomfortable. He did. I wanted him to stalk around backstage and be shunned. He was. When Jeff Jarrett came up to start proselytizing to Page, I shouted “PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE,” and he did. Perfect, 10 out of 10, would highly recommend. Often times, people have a tendancy will do something cool on pay per view in AEW and then disappear so I’m glad the follow up was here and it was good.

Nigel McGuinness, for reasons we’ll get into, CHALLENGED THAT CLAMDIGGER BRYAN DANIELSON FOR A MATCH AT ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM. Incredibly great, but there’s one tiny black mark against it. Still IT’S DANIELSON VS. MCGUINNESS.

Two in the air

I really, REALLY hope this isn’t some sort of swerve, some sort of red herring. I don’t know if McGuinness went into business for himself or what but he has been essentially building this match since the day he’s walked in the door of AEW, so I hope they genuinely make it happen.

Okay, the other thing, obviously hanging over the show ominously, like a rain laden cloud is the Jon Moxley stuff. I largely enjoyed it, which is a rarity with me and Mox. PAC throwing his lot in with Mox’ crew is great and makes perfect sense; he’s always surly and disgruntled with his position in AEW. The “company sucks and is broken” stuff… I think AEW has to be VERY careful with that and in past instances of “the company sucks,” they haven’t been. I’ll watch THAT aspect with some trepidation and a leery eye. Regardless of the execution, this new direction makes Moxley a zillion times more interesting than he has been… but then there’s weird stuff, like bringing up William Regal again. Look, I love William Regal as a performer, but the fact that he’s STILL being referenced by AEW, even after he screwed them (and make no mistake, he screwed them) is the worst, most jilted lover thing. I don’t get it AT ALL. I know AEW’s continuity encompasses everywhere, even WWE, but that doesn’t mean they should keep dredging it up.

The other odd thing, although it led to Nigel calling out Danielson, is Moxley challenging Darby Allin for his title shot. I don’t have a problem with that; he presumably put Danielson on the shelf so Danielson and Darby wouldn’t have ended up having a match. But somehow Danielson will be okay to fight Nigel? The logic gap there is so large that it leads me to think they aren’t delivering on that match, which would be ridiculous. I’m willing to handwave it a bit because I get something I want, but it’s weird.

I’m also worried that, once Mox gets in ring… he’ll just be Mox, with his weak strikes and selfish (lack of) selling. I know I’m on an island but I think he’s a selfish performer and doesn’t do a lot to make his opponent look good. I’m sure he’ll bump and feed for Darby, who he genuinely likes… but I don’t expect that match to be anything special. I’d like to be proven wrong. He clearly needed to rethink his presentation, and I hope that extends to his in ring presentation, as well.

Oh, and the tag casino gauntlet thing? It sorta sucked. Too many bodies, only a couple of teams that would have made sense to win, no fun surprises… and an ad hoc non team winning is BORING. I can only hope it leads to Mark Fletcher turning on Will Ospreay (seems obvious) and maybe Mark Davis returning. We’ll have to see.

Very much a so-so Dyna, I’m afraid.