La Zona Muerta

Feels good to have a decent Dynamite after whatever the hell last week was. Sure, Grand Slam sounds decent (and will likely be a wasteland, attendance-wise) but ultimately… past the business metrics and incoming TV deals and the moving goalposts and whatever… did the show entertain my surly ass? The answer this week was yes.

Do we need to hold the referendum on Chris Jericho? I don’t think it’s any secret that I think he’s washed up and broken down. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have something to contribute… but am I sick of him on my TV? Yeah. His performance Friday night against Mistico (a performer so gifted that *I* could probably have a semi passable match with him by just being a base for him to move around) in Arena Mexico was SHAMEFUL, and he knew it was bad, too… so we got Second Gear Jericho tonight, the gear where he actually tries. It was still a bit of a slog, and frankly, the entire rekindled feud was fairly unnecessary… but the match was largely fine. I wish Jericho had put over Konosuke Takeshita as much as he has Orange Cassidy but… *shrugs* whatever. It’s over and done with and hopefully Jericho is shifted back down the importance ladder slightly. Or significantly.

“I just chose to put on weight to look more powerful!”

The (I guess still) Blackpool Combat Club gave a backstage promo taped last week where PAC told Wheeler YUTA that it was time to get back to work and to come defend the trios titles next week. The missus and I HOWLED. God, I love PAC. Claudio Castagnoli looked grimly at the camera and shook his head. “I’m not angry… I’m just disappointed,” he said in his best stern father voice. THIS WAS TREMENDOUS. Then Jon Moxley, a performer whom the record will show I find overrated both on the mic and in ring cut this terrific promo. He didn’t scream or rant and rave… he simply pointed out that YUTA was free to leave the group, but he needed to do the right thing and come defend the belts, like he was TAUGHT TO. Just tremendous, compelling stuff.

They cut to YUTA in the back, leaving the arena (? Why was he there, then? The show had just started), still as conflicted as he was on Saturday’s episode of Collision. He said he would be there at Grand Slam to defend the championship, and he would kick whatever asses that needed to be kicked. A friend had said something along the lines of YUTA and Bryan Danielson need to be killed by the rest of the BCC next week and (assuming that the arms race to sign Daniel Garcia has all been kayfabed and that AEW aren’t entirely stupid which… who knows at this point) DANIEL GARCIA needs to come out to help save them, which would be such a perfect way to both establish Garcia and YUTA as the future of this company and to tie up Danielson and Garcia’s interactions in a nice bow. We’ll see.

HOOK killed a local talent. The best part of this was Roderick Strong sitting down at the announcers’ desk on the complete opposite end from where Taz was sitting and yelling needlessly “THANKS FOR INVITING ME OUT HERE, TAZ!” We screeched and howled. Roddy is the best. HOOK is… fine.

Private Party (Isiah Kassidy in particular) cut an impassioned promo in the back about how they wouldn’t be cannon fodder for the BCC to run over. Gotch bless, buddy. This was really good, but we could all see where it was going.

I guess Mina Shirakawa is coming to see Mariah May, one way or another. INSERT DOUBLE ENTENDRE HERE. Such a waste.

They aired a rad promo about Nigel McGuinness and his long standing feud with Danielson, with lots of former and current ROH people weighing in about what would seem to be Nigel’s inferiority complex. They are still pushing the idea that Danielson might not be able to compete at Arthur Ashe Stadium next week. THIS HAD BETTER NOT BE SOME DUMB SWERVE.

So, it was time for more Blackpool whatever they will call themselves Club… but Private Party decided to bushwack them on the way to the ring. This led to like five minutes of Private Party (and their new friend, Kommander) being destroyed utterly… like all put putting them in a crate and shipping them back to House of Glory destroyed. Kommander in particular was just slaughtered so thoroughly that I don’t see how he can ever be taken as a serious threat on AEW TV ever again. Moxley made the INCREDIBLE point (incredible for a number of reasons) that Private Party had been in AEW from the beginning but, five years later were in the EXACT SAME SPOT THEY HAVE BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING. Man, it’s true but should he really say that? Anyway, he decided to give Kassidy a challenge to overcome and smashed his hand with a hammer.

Good LORD.

I know this will all fall apart next week when Moxley just has his standard match with Darby Allin… but I can’t believe how much I have enjoyed the last two or three weeks of Moxley. Again, I have to point out that this is a performer who I do not care for… but this new direction has been gripping, compelling stuff. I have no idea where they want it to go and they have to be careful with the AEW sucks stuff… but man.

Seems a lot of people were finally won over by Ricochet in his match with THE BEAST MORTOS… but it still chafed me, especially as Mortos is someone they seem to be somewhat trying to build. I said this last week; I realize you don’t pay a lot of money for a new guy to come in and then beat him like a drum… but if Ricochet had lost a couple of times and then Will Ospreay yelled at him, telling him to pull his finger out… I think that would have made more sense. Oh, well. Some people saw this as an awesome match; I saw a tired guy who did some cool stuff off of an incredible base. Your mileage may vary. Ricochet cut a promo on Ospreay in the back saying that everyone everyone in AEW was more worried about Ricochet than Ricochet was worried about Ospreay. I thought Ricochet was going to say “than I care about AEW.” Oops. People seemed to like this, so I’ll shut up.

The still unhinged and unsatisfied Hangman Adam Page came to the ring and menaced Tony Schiavone, the cad.

Does this look like the face of a man who is satisfied?

Fortunately, friend of announcers everywhere, Dubba J, Jeff Jarrett, came to save the day. I have to assume this is diametrically opposed to every fiber of his being as at least 67% of his TNA run was comprised entirely of this:

but here we are. I was ANGRY when it looked like this was going to be the match for Hangman at Wembley, but for a TV match, it will be great. Jarrett will know how to extract every drop of sympathy out of the match and Hangman will only look more and more deranged. Hangman’s current character is so compelling… it makes me wonder who will be able to stop him. It’s WAY too soon for Swerve to come back and kill him and they shouldn’t touch each other for a long time, anyway… I have no idea who he will be on a collision course with next.

Then we rolled into a TREMENDOUS match with the Elite (comprised of the Young Bucks plus Kazuchika Okada) vs. either the Don Callis Family with special guest Will Ospreay or United Empire, with special guest Konosuke Takeshita. The looks of one Kyle Fletcher aside (how the FUCK does that man have a woman in his life and still look so bad? PLEASE give this guy a makeover)… this was a terrific TV main event. Okada wanted no part of Takeshita, and of course, that’s ALL Takeshita wanted. He and Ospreay could not get along, and Fletcher was caught in the middle, trying to broker peace. Everyone is upset at Okada not working to his fullest (forgetting that the man would generally take it easy during the million multi man tags he wrestled every tour in New Japan) or opine that the Bucks are “washed,” but everyone looked good here. The Bucks clearly need motivation to bring out their former greatness, and frankly, the same probably goes for Okada… tonight, they were able to find whatever they needed to be their old selves. Despite the Don Callis family being dastardly heels, Takeshita worked a lot of this match as a fiery babyface and it all worked so well. The match advanced the idea of Okada and Takeshita finally squaring off, the Bucks fighting Ospreay and Fletcher (and whatever bad thing will happen there; my money being on Mark Davis returning and Aussie Open reuniting to give Ospreay a beatdown)… and was entertaining in it’s own right.

AEW still has a lot of problems at the promotional level, probably at the organizational level… but they still have the literal best wrestling roster in the world. If they are allowed to, when you let them, they give you a heckuva show, and fortunately for us. that’s what we got this evening. Let’s hope Grand Slam continues the trend.