IN LAIMAN’S TERMS #432
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Thoughts on AEW Dynamite – June 14th, 2023
1. Welcome back to where it all began, etc. MJF opening a show with a match, haven’t seen that in a while. I’m surprised how many eliminator matches haven’t resulted in a challenger winning, but that’s not a complaint. Makes it matter more when it actually does happen.
2. MJF messes with a fan who seemed to be intentionally trying to get messed with. Looks like he made that person’s whole year.
3. I continue to adore how Tony makes no pretense of objectivity during MJF’s matches.
4. Not only are we seeing heel match psychology, but the conversation on commentary is mirroring that and explaining it in a way that doesn’t sound hackneyed. I appreciate that.
5. Brilliant sell by MJF when his mouth gets busted open by a superkick. Dazed look, stunned, surprised by the sight of blood in his mouth. It’s the little touches like that, they truly elevate the work he does. As is a last desperate grab at the knee pad to prevent the Boom. Love it.
6. Adam Cole is no slouch in this department either. The ability to sell both short-term match damage as well as the cobwebs he’s still shaking out from the very long break, that takes tremendous effort and skill.
7. Of all things to take us into a commercial break, a running Tombstone Piledriver on the ring apron. Wrestling sure has changed over time.
8. The commercial break house show commentator discussion this time brings us a more in-depth and specific explanation of why the apron is the hardest part of the ring… surface. Those discussions alone are worth the price of FITE.
9. The opening of Dynamite continues to be a spot for an amazing wrestling match, and this is no exception, to say the very least. Wow.
10. There’s a Heatseeker and then an extended check-in on Adam Cole, and that really makes me nervous. I’m sure they also know that, but when people who’ve had concussion issues appear dazed, I worry in the wrong ways.
11. MJF removes the turnbuckle pad to do an elbow drop through Adam Cole on a table. Damn, they’re really going all out for this match. It’ll be interesting to see them top it when the title match inevitably happens one way or the other.
12. Cole barely makes his way back into the ring to beat the count. Always good to raise the tension within a match, and a ticking clock almost never fails in that regard.
13. MJF starts arguing with Bryce, AC goes for the Simon Miller Special, and ope, the kickout goes right into the ref. This sounds like an opportunity for Cheating. MJF pulls the Eddie Guerrero with the title, but then Bryce isn’t quite back up yet. Tony yells “crack him in the head!” Crowd chants “you fucked up!” Unlike Jack Perry, Adam Cole isn’t afraid to get his hands a little dirty and he does so. Still not enough to put MJF away though.
14. MJF goes for the subterfuge low blow, and this double distraction gives him a chance to get the big ol’ ring. Bryce was onto him though and that gets MJF kicked right in the face. Thank you, referees don’t always have to be complete idiots. Adam Cole lowers the Boom, and just before he gets the three count, the time limit elapses. What a bait and switch, amazing match with a brilliant ending. Or is it the end? Cole gets the mic and demands five more minutes. Of course he doesn’t take it, which… ya can’t really blame him for that, really.
15. I see the L, it must be a CM Punk promo. Damn, there’s something I never thought I’d say again. This Saturday, the debut of Collision, and a lot of things to get off his chest. That sounds familiar. I’m intrigued to see how this is going to go.
16. Renee brings out Sammy Guevara, who is back for the first time since Double or Nothing. He made quite the gradual turn since the first Four Pillar promo, so it’ll be interesting to see where he is now. How many sentences will he get through before someone interrupts him?
17. More than usual, considering the usual pacing of Dynamite, but finally Darby Allin comes out after Sammy says he has some changes to make. Darby acknowledges the aforementioned turn, but asks the JAS question.
18. Speaking of whom… Jericho comes out looking like Johnny Lawrence looking to break someone’s windshield. Throw some easy heel heat on there too by interrupting the chorus sing-a-long too.
19. Jericho calls Sammy out on never calling him in the entire Four Pillar storyline, so I think we can see where this is going. They start trading some barbs with Sammy throwing things back in Jericho’s face as he hasn’t before. This gives Jericho the inspiration for a little Teddy Long, cause he wants a tag match, playa.
20. Darby interrupting Jericho and making a challenge makes him bring out the 2008 monotone. He threatens to take him out two-on-one, but Darby’s not alone. Of course he’s not alone. We’ve got a potential Bat-Off. They’re selling the moment of Jericho and Sting staring each other down for the first time so I guess that match is happening. Nothing definitive is said, so that 8-man later will probably have some shenanigans.
21. We come back with Sanada, the IWGP Heavyweight Champion making an open challenge for Forbidden Door. Hopefully it is actually an open challenge with a surprise entrant and not the recent trend of “open” challenges where we already know who it is. Never miss a chance for a good surprise pop.
22. It starts off as a melee but immediately goes into picture-in-picture for the broadcast folx. The melee-itude doesn’t decrease that quickly, though the Embassy gains control soon enough. Brian Cage is doing his own Sting tribute act with face-paint, though the colors make it look like Sting was originally the New York Knicks’ mascot. Maybe he was, who knows?
23. We’ve got a “We Want Sting!” chant already. Man is still ridiculously over no matter what. It’s so rare to have that kind of staying power.
24. Daniel Garcia stares at the screen backstage, so there’s some kind of implication there. Darby continues to take the cheap heat, and gets out of it with, of all moves, a Stundog Millionaire. Keith Lee comes in to destroy people, something not said nearly enough in the last year or so. That gets cut off though with a four-person double-stomp powerbomb combo. No wonder VKM used to just say “what a maneuver.”
25. We get a trope in a multi-person match that has been done a million times and I don’t care: person does move, another comes in and does another to that person, then yet another hits the second person, repeat. I don’t know why, but it almost always works. Sting gets Cage set up, and OC assists by using the Orange Punch to blast some wind in Cage’s general direction, and Sting wins for the team. I was expecting some level of shenanigans, but apparently the only post-match involvement we get is going back to Daniel Garcia looking in the camera and pointing at the screen. Okay then.
26. The Juniors Ass get interviewed by Renee, and they more or less say that they don’t do run-ins and tell. They’re talking trash about the Hardyz, so that’s going to happen next week. I can safely say when watching the Hardyz and the New Age Outlaws when I was a kid, that I did not expect seeing those same Hardyz wrestling Billy Gunn’s kids one day.
27. Another title match starting with an attack from behind, Wardlow doesn’t get too far into his green strobe light wolf laser light show before Biff runs Wardlow off his hoverboard. Doesn’t take us long to get another picture-in-picture though, and that makes me grateful it doesn’t change anything viewing this way.
28. I still don’t get how they haven’t even teased Wardlow going after MJF, considering what happened last time they were in the ring together. That continues to make zero sense.
29. 2.0 comes out for the shenanigans I was expecting from the last match, so it’s a good thing they didn’t do that two matches in a row, I suppose. Arn’s gonna pull out the GLOCK though! Imagine explaining this to a non-wrestling fan. I haven’t had as much difficulty trying to figure that one out since Little Jimmy got kicked in the head.
30. Ohai Powerbomb Symphony, it’s been a while. It’s not getting the massive reactions it once did, but Wardlow’s reactions do seem to be recovering. I imagine the Christian match helped him out a bunch, which was likely the point.
31. Speaking of whom, there’s the aforementioned and Lizard Kane with no sound, but Wardlow turns around to look at it anyway. Looks like Luchasaurus will face Wardlow at the first Collision, and uh oh, Arn didn’t pull out the glock in time backstage. Arn is on the stairs bleeding from the head and Wardlow sprints backstage.
32. Another video challenge, Tanahashi throwing down for MJF, damn! Renee is there to ask MJF about it, but of course he both turns it down and trashes the “rinky-dink indy fed” of NJPW. We just saw a Wardlow match, and there MJF is making veiled references to no-showing matches. Good on Renee for getting to the source of the challenge so quickly backstage though, there’s a lot going on there.
33. Renee is already at another interview, and Exhausted OC predicts an interruption. That didn’t take long. Daniel Garcia gets his mug in there, and very quickly we end up with Zack Sabre, Jr and Daniel Garcia against Orange Cassidy and Shibata. Damn!
34. Next is the most surprising title match in quite a while. Skye Blue finally won a match and now gets to challenge Toni for the title. I don’t think she has much of a chance, but at least there’s a chance at all. Ruby comes out with a cardboard cutout of Saraya. That’s certainly a decision.
35. Skye’s mom ends up getting the spraypaint to the face, I’ll bet that didn’t feel great. The rest of this goes very similarly to a lot of matches in this feud, with Skye getting a close fall chance, someone outside playing the distraction game, and reversal ensues. Toni wins, so… No surprise but that was still a bit of a groaner. Speaking of going the same way it has for months, Willow makes the save and they run away. Nevermind that Skye and Willow have been noticeably absent from the Originals/Outcasts feud, some things haven’t changed.
36. Renee is busy as ever, and she’s backstage with JungleHook. Jungle Boy calls Hook his best friend, it’s sweet. There’s still vibes of a turn, even little ones.
37. More Collision previewing, and that’s necessary for the big hype-up debut. The six-man tag will be the main event, BCC/Elite sans Omega and Danielson.
38. The story continues, likely finding some way to up the stakes in the feud with Kenny’s trip outside the states and Takeshita/Callis lurking in the shadows somehow. It’ll be their usual tremendous wrestling fare, with Danielson enhancing it with his intentional homerism. And that’s by no means a bad thing.
39. Hangman gets the team a surprisingly clean win with the Buckshot over Wheeler. Guess his recent hot streak is over, but I doubt this is any kind of definitive ending. The BCC do BCC things in retaliation to the ending. Of all people, Eddie Kingston runs in. I know they had the ROH title match with Claudio, but still.
40. Mox pulls Eddie around and they come face-to-face. Realizing they’re best friends, they don’t come to blows. There’s a lot of confusion, and then Takeshita runs in knocking out some Young Bucks with his power fist.
41. Oh hey, there’s Omega! He and Takeshita start trading shots, the Bucks come in with many kicks. Omega prepares for the dive, but oh hey, there’s Will Ospreay out of nowhere! This is the chaos I was expecting. The Forbidden Door build-up just took a big step. Danielson is still there, just watching on until he gives Ospreay a standing ovation. I thought there might’ve been some pay-off to the whole “Kenny’s out of the country, not Canada” but that’ll probably be answered next week. Forbidden Door is looking better every second.
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
6/9/23 – Ethan Page
6/14/23 – The cardboard cutout of Saraya