IN LAIMAN’S TERMS #440
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Thoughts on AEW Dynamite: 200 – August 2nd, 2023
1. It feels appropriate on an anniversary episode to open with Chris Jericho, and a jacket I can best describe as Chrome-Plated Ninja Turtle. It’s easy to forget sometimes just how big of a deal it was that Jericho signed with AEW, but despite how some of the feuds have gone in the last year, it still matters a great deal. And yet again he finds himself in another intriguing storyline with the potential of the Callis super-stable.
2. Damn, Tampa showed up too. They’re filled to the top at least on the visible side.
3. The JAS explodes! After a moderately slow burn of dissolving interest within, anyway. I’m curious to see what Jericho’s role in a stable without being the primary, founding member would be.
4. The crowd goes from hot and happy to heavy booing once Takeshita merely tags in. The power of Callis continues to be a magnet for boos. Takeshita nominates himself for a rare HAMmy performance by an evil hip swivel, which would be a great name for a signature move. Or at least a taunt.
5. Konosuke has a devastating-looking diving senton. He has developed so much presence since turning. His look after getting up from this move was so “yeah, I did that shit, what?”
6. Sammy and Danny are the default faces of this tag team match. Sammy had already turned face for the most part (after a few weeks of stalling, but it’s still weird.
7. Midway through the match, the dissent between Jericho and the boys finally starts getting heated. Danny is way more eager to attack than Sammy is, but they’re not holding back. Takeshita then tries a “Walls of Takeshita,” which gave me early Smackdown vibes from 1999. “He calls it the ‘NEW NAME MOVE’ that may or may not be here next week.”
8. Sammy does a shooting star press off the top turnbuckle to the outside, and clocks his elbow right in Takeshita’s face. The camera lingers as Sammy checks on him before continuing to sell.
9. That damn Callis, he clocks Danny in the head with Floyd, which pisses Jericho off, but he still goes for the win anyway. His face shows lament though, and that’s a nice touch.
10. Tony’s taking us into a short version of the montages they’ve been releasing on YouTube this week. Those were fun to watch, especially the ones before I started watching. Nice to see who used to be there and how far others have come.
11. It’s a Dynamite promo, so Jericho and Renee are immediately interrupted. Menard calls for a mandatory meeting of the JAS. Um… it’s still a thing?
12. The more times I hear Jack Perry’s new theme, the more I hate it as an entrance theme. The commentators do a nice job for those of the audience who weren’t around to understand what ECW was about at the time.
13. Jack immediately cuts Tony off and calls out Jerry. Jack seems to be the only one who thinks this is supposed to be a match. Jerry calls him “Jungle” and says that beating him up would be child abuse. Both of those made me laugh out loud. He says he called a good friend who was in ECW. I wonder who it could be…
14. Old Pantera theme and everything, hell yes! The ageless wonder, the magic of weed preservation. Already a better presentation of RVD than WWECW. Jack immediately powders as the crowd sings the theme. Jack tries to come back and tries to stick him with the chair, and Jack grabs a child and hides behind her. Jack the heel has become such a HAM, I love it.
15. Justin brings us into a three-way, anything goes match, which again feels fitting with an ECW theme going on the show. We’ve got Trent, Mox, and Penta. I’d be delighted to see Trent actually win a match, but I can’t remember the last non-Dark/Elevation time the BFFs have won anything. It seems like they were a bigger deal in the first year or two. Sign in the crowd: “Let’s Go Trent?”
16. This match is utter chaos to the surprise of nobody. There’s barbed wire and many tables, which is surprising since those things were clearly never going to be used again after the ZOMGBANNED! list!
17. Trent suplexes Mox off the turnbuckle and through the tables. They snuggle up for a quick checkup chat as things go to picture-in-picture. They love that “you okay?” cam tonight, don’t they?
18. Penta’s outfit makes him look like Lucha Kane from a distance. I wish he’d brought back the Dark Penta entrance for it too.
19. Penta comes off the top with an Avalanche Destroyer through a table, though it’s fair to say that Penta went through the table and Trent landed after it, but still cool. Mox spears Penta through another table a few seconds later, and sure enough, we’ve got thumbtacks too. Mox isn’t bleeding yet, so we’ve gotta fix that problem immediately. After all, it is a day.
20. Poor Penta takes two devastating moves on the tacks, but then Trent gets a piledriver on Mox and… well, almost wins.
21. Holy shit, Trent actually won a televised match. I had a feeling they might get a win in here, as I was hoping they wouldn’t pull the BCC vs. Dark Order 0-for-the-century feud. Mox puts him out almost immediately as the BCC heads toward the ring. Chuck and Orange Cassidy, possibly the least intimidating brawl duo in recent memory, interrupt the long walk. More chaos breaks out. Chuck challenges the BCC to a parking lot brawl at Daily’s Place, appropriately enough.
22. Bonus HAM for RVD’s shirt. Hey, cool, whatever man. They’re doing this next week? Damn, I thought it might be at All In. Eventually there will be a match booked for that show, I’m sure of it.
23. MJF is contractually obligated to appear, and so he does. What an amazing performance on Saturday. I’m so glad this angle is continuing past last Saturday, when many thought it would hit the predictable end. I do wonder if MJF takes the “I did the right thing for the first time and it screwed me” angle, but I still think Adam Cole is in on the gig the whole time.
24. MJF gets “ADD” over as a chant again, and I’m nervous. Talking about mental health in the past has led to a quick sympathy bait-and-switch to the snake. He’s either incredibly sincere or incredibly gifted at making people think he is. Or both, more or less. I never thought I’d see the day where RSD was brought up in a wrestling promo, but here we are.
25. MJF admits that being so hurt from scumbags made him into one, and we can add self-awareness to the mix here. He has the crowd in the palm of his hand yet again, and he thanks the crowd for not being scared anymore. He’s still a scumbag but wants to be *your* scumbag, AKA the Steve Stifler model.
26. Now is when he’s crediting Adam Cole for how far he’s come and convincing him he deserves a friend. Still can’t trust it completely, which is probably the point. Adam comes out without the music or anything, how very Collision of him.
27. After their Team Hell No moment where they hugged it out instead of turning on each other, here we are yet again, possibly ready to graduate from School for Scumbags. Adam continues to put him over, and it’s very emotional. Whether or not the character is being a shit at the end of the day, I think shoot MJF is touched, even if he’ll never admit it.
28. Now the reference for the shot at the title, and hopefully it’s not a shot *with* the title. MJF, shockingly and by shockingly I mean not that, says he doesn’t deserve a match. But, in yet another way of playing with emotions, it’s not a match, but *the* match. Finally, All In has a main event, Cole vs. MJF for the title.
29. They say they love each other and hug it out more. Someone in the crowd yells “he’s a scumbag, remember?”
30. Roderick Strong goes Tommy Wiseau freakout levels of HAM backstage before being taunted by the Kingdom. He’s trying to summon his inner Ken Shamrock with that roar.
31. The recently re-signed Elite is back after a week off and making everyone pretend they hate Colt Cabana on BTE. Triple J gets a trios match with them, since they can never do anything but fail upward.
32. After some typical and shenaningan-riddled fun, Karen and Sonjay try to keep Kenny from hitting the OWA. Brandon Cutler gets involved with the spray, and the Hardys and Ethan Page tip-toe down to the ring to even the odds. Jeff has the guitar, but then suddenly, there’s Hangman too. The Elite win because of course they do, but it got really fun at the end.
33. They get on the mic to announce their re-signing, which is great for episode 200 for sure. Kenny even puts a little sarcastic snark on mentioning Collision, which also made me laugh.
34. AR Fox gets a follow-up promo with Swerve, who’s all like “if I got you here, why didn’t I hear from you for five years?” Legit question if it’s true. They go to the Buddy Wayne academy in a parody-style film. Some trainees take their licks. Nick Wayne puts up the best fight he can while being outnumbered, and he gets a picture frame smashed over him. It’s a picture of him and his dad, oof. They continue fucking with the bloody Nick Wayne and force him to call Darby. “Yo, what up, Nick?”
35. They called Darby and continued to destroy property. Damn, Fox must’ve really been pissed.
36. We’re getting an ROH tag team title match on Dynamite, for some reason. Hey, it gets Aussie Open, Vikingo, and Komander on the show at least, even if it is the inevitable “luchadors have a great match but lose” match. At least Komander won on Rampage on Friday. That was a nice thing to see before a storm hit Elkhart, Indiana so hard that my hotel room flooded. Even mushroom clouds have silver linings.
37. I really like Vikingo and Jomander’s matching outfits. That blue on black is so good, even Kenny Wayne Shepard would commend it.
38. This match is exactly what you’d expect, high-flying moves being broken up by stiff punches and slams.
39. Even when the women’s title match gets the main event, the division can’t get more than one match on a show.
40. Davis keeps going for pins with the leg fully extended instead of bent. Hope the hamstrings are limbered up or that would hurt like hell.
41. Aussie Open win, because of course they do. It’s another fun match though, so the matches themselves are bringing it.
42. Shida comes out to a different theme than usual, not sure if it’s a new one or a previously used one. Hikaru came out alone, all three Outcasts came out, because faces never learn.
43. “Shida’s at her best when she’s aggressive.” Yeah, that would make sense, I suppose. She’s already being distracted by the mean girls at ringside though, so that’ll keep being a thing.
44. Holy shit, there’s a ref distration and the other two attack, who could’ve seen that coming except for everyone?
45. If he weren’t part of the Viking Raiders, I’d swear that was Ray Rowe in the back row of the floor seats right in the center.
46. We’re going overtime, as it’s about to be the top of the hour and the match doesn’t seem anywhere close to over.
47. The ref seems mystified that the triad that has interference in all of their matches is having interference in this match. They give Shida the kendo stick, but Hikaru cracks it over Ruby’s head instead. Another distraction and she uses the spray-paint to get a piledriver and a nearfall. It’s a milestone episode, so I’m not too surprised when there’s a title change, but someone who had their entire title reign in the pandemic deserves a moment like this. Good for her. Still, AEW, do better than one match a week.
48. Compared to some of the milestone episodes I used to cover, like say, RAW 1000, this show was an absolute blast. Not perfect by any means, some of the problems this show has continue to be problems, but it’s a lot of fun. It did a great job of balancing the celebration of how far they’ve come with what’s going on now, as sometimes nostalgia can take over something like this.
Swerve doing some home invasion shit and still making it ridiculous and funny is a level-up in HAM. Whose house indeed.
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
6/17/23 – CM Punk
6/21/23 – Adam Cole/MJF
6/23/23 – Anthony Bowens
6/24/23 – Powerhouse Hobbs
6/25/23 – Will Ospreay
6/28/23 – Keith Lee
7/1/23 – Andrade
7/5/23 – Adam Cole/MJF
7/7/23 – Daniel Garcia
7/8/23 – Samoa Joe
7/12/23 – Jack Perry
7/17/23 – Ricky Starks
7/19/23 – MJF and Adam Cole (not even close)
7/22/23 – Ricky Starks
7/26/23 – Jeff Hardy
7/31/23 – Samoa Joe
8/2/23 – Swerve