La Zona Muerta

Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of meat on the bone for me in regards to Dynamite last night. The best match on the show had a dumb, dopey disqualification (sigh), and… it is seven LONG weeks until All In, so that’s gonna mean a LOT of treading water for all of the top programs. Thekla debuted in a seemingly rushed segment, so that’s probably exciting for some folks and Mercedes Moné stared down Timeless Toni Storm in the *checks notes* main event… interview segment (sigh again). Obviously that match is a big deal for some people, so, by all means, enjoy it! Just doesn’t do much for me, is all.

By contrast, the… opening… interview segment (Jesus, I need something to catch all of these sighs)… It was good, but… I dunno. I really need Hangman Adam Page to keep his volatile tweener edge, and he mostly did, but then you have Will Ospreay out there trying to convince Swerve Strickland that Hanger is the prettiest girl at the ball… again, I dunno. It’s not that it doesn’t make sense; Swerve, of course, still has a big problem with Hangman as the Young Bucks claimed to have interfered on Page’s behalf back at whatever show that was that almost broke the will of the fans. Swerve wanted to know if Hangman was behind that (thorough) screwing. Page pointed out (dumbass) that if he wanted to interfere, he would have personally and etc. Swerve didn’t believe him and I spread rushed out to play referee. That’s all well and good… but they are going to have to do permutations on this for SEVEN WEEKS. It could be good, don’t get me wrong. Swerve and Hangman BOTH are incredibly creative people and both guys excel in laying breadcrumbs and paying off Easter eggs… but AEW often has a problem overshooting the peak of things. That’s a lot of my problem with Moné / Storm, to be honest; I’m sure the actual match will be at least good… I’m more worried about the seven weeks of repetitive nonsense LEADING to that match. I have faith in Hangman and Swerve to not make this repetitive garbage but seven weeks is a LONG time.

The rest of the show? AEW has REALLY latched on to Speedball Mike Bailey and Josh Alexander, using them both on most every Dynamite and / or Collision since their respective debuts and there’s nothing wrong with that! It’s just that I feel both guys are… repetitive might be the wrong word but, especially with Bailey, I think if you have seen his best stuff, you’ve seen it all and you don’t really need to see it again. Josh Alexander and Brody King had a good, solid match; they beat the shit out of each other… but it just felt like… whatever. Superficial, maybe? Whatever the case, it didn’t do much for me. Didn’t feel like a main event (and, I suppose, it wasn’t). Random Death Riders tag with Gabe Kidd (super sigh)? Again, it just didn’t do anything for me. Nothing wrong, especially… Just not particularly captivating. Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford vs. Anna Jay and Harley Cameron? I think pretty much all of those gals are a bit overrated for various reasons except Penelope (who is better than people give her credit for). The Frathouse gimmick from Ring of Honor making it onto national TV? Yuck, low rent and trashy, especially with the repugnant “Jacked Jameson” running around. I appreciate that they are trying to give some dudes a reason to be together, to have some sort of unifying gimmick but man, this is an AEW Dark act if there ever was one. TrustBusters 2.0 but not as good (and the TrustBusters weren’t all that great to begin with).

You can start to see why this show wasn’t for me; pretty much every segment had an element I didn’t care for built in.

Speaking of which, the best match on the show, Adam Cole (still getting WAY too much flak from some people and I don’t get why) vs. Kyle Fletcher… It was good, crisp, stiff… and then Fletcher was a bit careless and seemingly smashed Adam “Missed a year for a concussion related issue” Cole into the ring apron… head first. I have heard through the grapevine that SOMEHOW Cole DIDN’T hit his head… I guess… but Kyle was definitely a bit wild and careless, there. I hope it doesn’t effect his confidence or push. I just saw an interview with Fletcher where he said his amazing transformation over the last six months was down to his confidence growing so much… hope this doesn’t put a crimp in that. Obviously THIS FEUD MUST CONTINUE and the only way they could get out of it was a DQ. At least it wasn’t a time limit draw. The AEW fan talking point is usually along the lines of “they don’t do a lot of DQs, so it’s okay.” I mean, if it’s okay for you, cool. To me, it’s lame and uncreative.

This sounds like I HATED the show; I didn’t! I just didn’t LIKE the show. I suspect that for the second or third week in a row, I’ll prefer Collision, which is showcasing more wrestling with more diverse talent, so, hey, I got that goin’ for me.

There was one tiny, interesting thing that I haven’t seen anyone mention yet; obviously they showcased Mistico heavily last week, talking about how he’s the greatest luchadore of all time and so forth (you ever see him pre WWE? He was indeed pretty great) and although the greatness comes a bit fewer and further between these days, he’s STILL very good at what he does. Anyway, they ran a coveted, precious VIDEO PACKAGE about him, not saying he was coming in or anything… Just saying that he was still great. I wonder if he’s signed some paperwork, either with CMLL OR INDEED with AEW making sure that NuAAA can’t snatch him away. Hmmm. Just seemed very random on a show which is usually pretty prime real estate.

Anyway.

Not my favorite Dynamite. Not the end of the world, either. Now, I sleep.