La Zona Muerta

Looking back, I feel like I don’t have a great deal to say about Dynamite; not a bad show by any means, but I wasn’t particularly GRIPPED by it, either. I was a bit worried it was gonna be an endless parade of misplaced ECW nostalgia and was dreading that, honestly… but other than the layout of the fans, the round the corner, fenced in entrance emulating classic ECW, the show was not particularly reference heavy. Wrestling fans (and I’m not immune, but I feel like my fandom doesn’t hold a lot of room for this sort of thing) tend to see old wrestlers who are still around as being able to be what they were when the fans were introduced to them. “Wouldn’t it be funny / cool if…” No. No, it wouldn’t. The remaining embers of the ECW fire? There are maybe a handful of guys… like, you could count the names literally on one hand who could realistically interact with the modern AEW roster and not be an utter embarrassment. If MASATO TANAKA shows up, I’m in. If Sandman shows up? Even my beloved Raven? The rotund Super Crazy? The near mummified Tajiri? The repugnant RVD? Not so much.

Anyway, I don’t want to complain about something that didn’t happen; I’ll leave that to the AEW podcasters who get mad about their own fantasy booking as if it actually took place. The crowd in the 2300 Arena was… fine. The guy riding the drop button at TBS all night was pretty fucking irritating; gonna be a long month if every other word is suddenly missing. I guess they made the 2300 Arena look about as good as it could but I recall the first ECW pay per view, Barely Legal from, God help me, almost thirty years ago, and AEW used a LITTLE more pipe and drape, they painted the grotty floor with a fresh coat…. just like ECW did back then, but… You can put makeup on a sow as much as you want, y’know? Still oinks.

I’m excited about the reunion of Hangman Adam Page and Kenny Omega. Maybe Kenny saw that there was a bit of a gap on the show without Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay and was like “I can do the tag team thing for a bit,” who knows. Plenty of strands there to pick up with the Young Bucks, too. It’s good to have the world heavyweight champion not be a friendless fool so I’m super down with that and I love the idea of Don Callis finally pointing his coterie of jerks at the champ. Genuinely, the Don Callis Family is my favorite act on TV right now. It’s swollen to NWOesque proportions but somehow, it DOESN’T SUCK. I guess we have the INVISIBLE HAND to thank for that. Aggro, angry, serious Maxwell Jacob Friedman threatening to do something horrible to Mark Briscoe to get at ol’ Hanger? Doesn’t really rock my socks… at some point Briscoe HAS TO get some vengeance on Max. MJF would be more effective if he took some time off for awhile, did his CMLL stuff, whatever… and then he could show up outta nowhere with his title shot contract looming.

The other thing that’s interesting to me right now is the change in Jon Moxley. Earlier in the year and throughout the final quarter of 2024, as champion, he was eating people alive, having HORRIBLE main events on PPV and just stinking the joint up. Now? He seems DETERMINED to single-handedly put over the young generation of AEW talent… and shock of all shocks? I’M ENJOYING HIS MATCHES. I’m not sure I’ve EVER been able to say that before… but his quest to work the youth of the promotion, and give them a TON… I’m down with that, as well. Where was this guy during the championship reign? It’s like he’s determined to right his own wrongs AND the wrongs of others, as well. Also, a shoutout to Claudio Castagnoli who I’ve said in columns past seemed “job adverse,” but now is doing the right thing in losing to Darby Allin (and more importantly, making Darby look credible) in the build up to All Out.

The neverending tale of Danny Garcia needing to turn to gain that desperately needed vaneer of interest…? Maybe Mox can finally pull the trigger on that? There were some interesting teases in that direction last night as Mox tried to mollify or even soothe Garcia after their match. Or maybe Bryan Danielson comes back as a manager, not a wrestler, and make Garcia his instrument of revenge? I dunno. I’m suddenly almost excited about Garcia’s prospects again as opposed to screaming TURN at my TV like I would at an old car that refused to start. I’ve got to give AEW, Moxley, whomever, props for turning the Death Riders from something that was grinding shows to a halt, literal channel changing heat to a group I’m fairly excited to see. Funny what losing here and there can do, huh?

Overall, it was a pretty good Dyna, maybe a clunker segment or two but today I choose to RISE ABOVE and ignore that. I fear my antipathy for the Arena / worrying about ECW references will probably be in full gear (ho ho) by the time I’ve watched the ROH show there on Friday and Collision on Saturday, but that’s a me problem. Hopefully the goings on around will distract me enough to not get too maudlin about it.