IN LAIMAN’S TERMS #431
Contact: Email
Support: Donate here
Thoughts on AEW Dynamite – June 7th, 2023
1. It’s Wednesday night, etc.
2. We start off with a familiar sound, it’s “Jane!” Will Swerve be the one who finally takes the title away from him? We’ve seen one long title reign end recently, so it’s quite possible. I think Swerve is also due for an individual accolade.
3. Swerve’s look of annoyance as people chant for his opponent is golden.
4. Swerve has OC scouted and manages to reverse a lot of his initial Sloth-style shenanigans. I already adore these two working off each other.
5. Ricky Starks vs. Jay White will have Juice and FTR banned from ringside. Okay, who’s debuting to interfere on his behalf and joining Bullet Club Gold? You might as well telegraph it with that kind of specific technicality.
6. Swerve gets hurricanrana’d to the outside and manages to stay attached to OC the whole time. Damn, he’s impressive.
7. They both facefuck themselves on the turnbuckle, it must be time for a commercial break.
8. I wonder if Nick Wayne will be involved with Swerve when he makes his debut? The Darby Association will be obvious, but if what I’ve seen of the two of them wrestling is any indication, that’d be an amazing opportunity for him. Then again, pretty much anyone in the ring with Swerve is elevated by default.
9. The elbow pad comes off after a near-fall, but that injury is really affecting him. I can’t imagine someone so cunning wouldn’t find a way to take advantage of that.
10. Swerve gets the Orange Punch and the Beach Break back to back, and gets a really close near-fall to a huge reaction. What a match.
11. The seatbelt doesn’t work either. Seems like OC is going through all the finishes that have worked for him during this run, and Swerve keeps getting out of them. Not to be outdone though, OC also gets out of the double stomp.
12. Reversal, reversal, Simon Miller Special with the tights grabbed, reverse of that, and OC wins! I’ll be damned, OC retains again. What a great match though.
13. The Moguls immediately attack, and the lights go out. When they come back, Darby and Sting are there with the Affiliates up the ramp. Prince Nana points at his head repeatedly for reasons.
14. In a vignette, Jay White puts over Ricky Starks huge before they yell at each other to preview their match.
15. Two of the biggest matches for Forbidden Door were made this past week, and they’re already doing a better job of previewing the others for those not in the know. Okada vs. Danielson is the kind of match previously only thought possible through the use of Create-a-Wrestler on a video game. That’ll be awesome.
16. Danielson was coming out to do commentary though, so the BCC must be next. Yep, and they’re facing Chaos, i.e. Rocky Romero and the BFFs, so… BCC wins. But at least we’ll get some Danielson HAM along the way.
17. Forget the curveball, Moxley. Give ’em the heater!
18. Mox comes over the railing and immediately gets a chair thrown at him. I guess that’s what you have to do when you’re fighting the BCC and you’re… not them.
19. Once again, remembering the history and tension with Wheeler Yuta and his former running buddies. Danielson continues to connect everything to Okada, not just because of Chaos’ connection either, but selling the upcoming match. Few can do it better than Danielson.
20. Aubrey has to keep her head on the swivel? Who let Paul Wight in here?
21. This was a mauling to the surprise of literally no one, and they keep the chokes and anvils coming afterward. The BCC continues to be a steamroller.
22. The Bucks and Hangman talk a little sarcastic shit. I don’t know what Thanksgiving table mat Hangman stole to make that shirt, but it works for him. They challenge the BCC for next week at the site of the first Dynamite, which Danielson also figures out a way to emphasize how much better they are because of being on TV longer. I love Danielson being a smarmy douche.
23. Ospreay/Omega has also become official for Forbidden Door, damn.
24. MJF comes out while Tony talks a ton of shit about him. It’s delightful, there’s no remaining objective when it comes to him. MJF attacks weed, so of course that’s going to get booed in Colorado. He says there’s not a more boring place in the world than Colorado. I mean, have you ever been to North Dakota, Max?
25. Ohai Adam Cole, this confirms the Jericho feud should be over. That alone is good news, but is Adam Cole MJF’s next opponent? That’s even better news!
26. Easy heat, MJF interrupts the crowd participation, and then almost kisses up to him at first. He’s so damn good at what he does. “Have you people heard about Ring of Honor?” Wow, HAM over. I love how MJF manages to catch both the perspective of a fan and also a lot of the perceived negativity about being a fan. A lot of word play in there too while carefully avoiding saying certain names.
27. He keeps saying wonderful things about him. When’s the turn coming? There’s no building up without tearing it back down. Ahhh, there it is. Video games and Twitch is where he’s going with this? All right then. Cole keeps listening to everything he says with a smile.
28. Talk about the badass boasts. “You know what they do to make MJF cool? They ring the bell.” And to complement that, we’re going full internet fan and talking about reading rumors. We even get a VKM namedrop. He knows what he’s doing, for sure. “I think Vince was right.” Oh snap.
29. Adam Cole no-sells the insults, what a great way to comeback. There’s some of that vintage Cole flair, complete with a “douchebag” chant. AC makes a dig about taking a piss in a cup and seeing who’s “natural” which gets a big reaction. I must’ve missed that rumor.
30. Rodney Dangerfield must be here in spirit, because there’s a “no respect” chant.
31. Adam Cole baits MJF, and his HAMmy ego makes him fall right into the trap. Well fucking done.
32. Contract Hijinx, Chapter 2 commences with the most glamorous neckbrace and a promise to make Ethan a better man.
33. Tornado tag time with the (likely short-term) reunion of JungleHook. Another match begins with a jump, but the heels did it this time so it’s bad.
34. There’s that neon green rope again. The Outcasts need to stop leaving their Mean Girls props around where the (Jungle) boys can reach them.
35. I hope there’s finally some eventual pay-off with Vance’s heel turn. Right now, the Dark Order can’t even keep Stu Grayson with them, and they spend most of their time making passive-aggressive comments at Hangman for having other friends. I’m not sure if it can be saved.
36. Hook has a giant chain, so if those two hang out long enough, they can have a significant role in the remake of See No Evil.
37. Vance has his Jon Moxley bleeding impression down, that looks nasty as hell. Hook then suplexes Dralistico on the floor and his head was too close for comfort.
38. A T-Bone suplex through a table with a tremendous amount of blood. Jose the Assistant assists in breaking up a pinfall, and JB backs him into Hook. Snare trap, double tap, JungleHook win their reunion tour.
39. Tony Khan has another announcement, because they’re being sure to mete these out. I don’t know why, but hearing him read these lines makes me think of “I had no idea my gold jewelry was worth so much money.” If you’re old enough to remember that commercial, I hope your back feels okay today.
40. The commentary table HAMs it up a little because the camera lingered too long. Takeshita and Callis do their “we are too evil for entrance music” entrance. Takeshita is gonna eat a local for lunch.
41. Having the replays happen while the match is going on is a heel touch I’ve never seen before, but I’m into it. Sign in the crowd: “Don Callis eats hot dogs without chewing.” Burn?
42. The heat for them when they start to talk remains as unreal as it was last week. It’s not much different than last week, except Takeshita talks earlier. But it works.
43. This show needs more Taz singing entrance themes.
44. Christian Cage comes out for an interview with some weird noise going on in the background. The Capulets continue to escalate the family feud, because Brock Anderson Montague got more than his thumb bitten. Hey, nice to see him on the show at least.
45. Now we’ve got Anna Jay against the galaxy’s best champion, and Daddy Magic is down with us, so that’s a bonus.
46. Menard makes his presence known by yelling as loud as possible, and it’s delightful. Kris continues to be powerful while Anna keeps being sneaky and getting out of dangerous situations. I don’t think she has a chance in hell, but that’s been the case for all the matches tonight, so…
47. Taya is so angry that she watches on for the second week in a row, but this time with hand gestures, so things have escalated.
48. I wish faces didn’t have to be dumb so very often. Kris falls for the obvious distraction multiple times. Yes, I know it gets heat and it’s a tale as old as time, but I don’t think it helps much. Kris gets the win because of course, but I don’t know, that annoyed me a bit. Taya is angry, I guess. Roar.
49. I think the Youtube video about Statlander’s comeback was really well done and emotional. I hope they continue to incorporate that.
50. Did you know Dynamite next week will be where the first Dynamite was? You’d think they’d mention that once in a while or something.
51. Ricky Starks against Jay White is next. We’ve already advertised a match involving Jay White that isn’t against FTR and him, despite the loose connection they’ve had in the last few weeks, so I don’t like Ricky’s chances. Also, there will likely be shenanigans, since they only mentioned specific people who were banned from ringside, as stated earlier.
52. The steps are now more dangerous than ever because they’re ajar. That’s certainly a position to take. I would think the loud clangy heavy potential projectiles had continuous elements of danger, but you can never be too sure.
53. The match is solid, but I don’t know if everyone is tired or just waiting for the shenanigans, but it seems duller than it should. I can’t quite figure out why.
54. Ricky hits a huge spear, but didn’t go for the cover for some reason. He follows up with the Rochambeau. The ref gets hit though, and sneaking to the ringside is… The Juniors Ass? Of all people? Jay White wins due to an FTR finisher. That… definitely happened. Okay then.
55. This show started off really well, despite the predictability of most of the outcomes. The ending falling flat aside, I thought it was really good. I wish there was more buildup for Forbidden Door, but that was the case last year too.
1/4/23 – The Gunns
1/11/23 – Daddy Magic
1/13/23 – Danhausen
1/18/23 – Sonjay Dutt
1/20/23 – Stokely Hathaway
1/25/23 – Tony Schiavone
1/27/23 – Danhausen
2/1/23 – Jade Cargill
2/3/23 – Ethan Page
2/8/23 – MJF
2/10/23 – STIIIIIIING
2/15/23 – Ruby Soho
2/17/23 – Dustin Rhodes
2/22/23 – Chris Jericho
2/24/23 – Matt Hardy
3/1/23 – Big Bill
3/3/23 – Jungle Boy
3/5/23 – MJF
3/8/23 – Anthony Bowens
3/10/23 – Riho
3/15/23 – MJF/Darby Allin/Jungle Boy/Sammy Guevara
3/22/23 – STIIIIIING
3/29/23 – Juice Robinson
3/31/23 – Eddie Kingston
4/5/23 – MJF
4/7/23 – Darby Allin/Julia Hart
4/12/23 – STIIIIIIIIING
4/14/23 – 2.0/Biff Hager
4/19/23 – Sammy Guevara
4/26/23 – MJF
5/3/23 – Triple J/Mark Briscoe
5/5/23 – The Firm Deletion – All of it
5/10/23 – Chuck Taylor and Trent Baretta
5/17/23 – Toni Storm
5/24/23 – Jay White
5/28/23 – Darby Allin
5/31/23 – Juice Robinson
6/7/23 – MJF