Friday, August 28, 2020

AEW Dynamite (August 27th, 2020): Matt Vs. Sammy In A Commercials Match


So here's the deal; I've been fairly complimentary of AEW in these various write-ups. For the most part, they've put out some quality wrestling shows and even when the shows felt underwhelming, it was never to the degree where the shows felt off... until tonight.

So, for the folks who felt that I've been overly positive towards AEW as of late, you'll be happy to know that I'm shifting gears today and will focus on the bad parts of the show, of which I'll touch on three that really irked me and contributed to an episode of Dynamite that, while still somewhat fun, started to fall off the wagon a bit.


Let's get the bright spots out of the way first. The promos on this show were top notch. There was a contract signing between MJF and Jon Moxley to further that story, which gives us a match between Mox and MJF's lawyer, because that's always fun. The Dark Order bit was pretty good with the casket and all that, though I'm not particularly thrilled with the possibility of a Brodie Lee/Matt Cardonas match in the near future. Britt Baker continues to be golden on the mic. I liked the tease of a Lance Archer/Brian Cage hoss fight because I know that'll be fun. I enjoyed the video package hyping up the Shida/Thunder Rosa match at All Out... oh, and Chris Jericho was on commentary and delivered the goods on that end.

With all that out of the way, here are some of the problems I've encountered on this show.

1 - Big Swole Handicap Match Was The Drizzling Shits
It was Penelope Ford and Reba Rebel Whatever against Big Swole in a handicap match and it was not very good. Ford is usually good and Swole is usually good... and Rebel had a match with Shelley Martinez whose unmentionables hurt and she said as much. I get that they want to showcase the women as much as possible, but maybe do that when your roster of women isn't lacking... Dr. Britt Baker DMD in a wheelchair with two bad legs and a broken nose while choking on a bunch of Whataburgers could have a better match than this. An off night for these ladies, I'm sure. Maybe next time, leave the make up lady out of it because this is just bad.

And don't give me the "well, she's supposed to be bad" treatment and then expect me to see this as some sort of brilliance. Just because it's supposed to suck doesn't make it good; it makes it suck.

2 - Matt Vs. Sammy In A Commercial Match
So the main event featured Sammy Guevara coming out to do his cuecard thing for the picture in picture commercial break. Then out comes Matt Hardy and not even a minute or so later, we have to take another commercial break. This was really bad, though I blame this more on the WWE-esque timing of the commercials and nobody got to see most of this match. Maybe they should've saved this for the PPV... oh and Sammy wins with a garish cut on the side of his head, all for a Commercials match.

3 - The Tag-Team Gauntlet AftermathAlright, just to get it out of the way, the gauntlet matches were fine on their own. The Bucks beat one team, then Hangman came out to screw them out of another win, and then FTR came out to beat the last team to earn themselves a shot at the tag titles. That was fine. And then the Bucks find Hangman in a bar and kick him out of the Elite because he's a drunk... and I'm like, "Going back to that well, again?" Hangman has been the best part about these shows, people like this Hangman character, and now you want to tease a heel turn with these guy?

Because the way I see it, the Bucks are dicks to Hangman because he's not Christian AF or whatever, so they're the ones "turning heel." And if that ain't the story being told here, then we need to have a little talk because this is reeking of the other guys.

4 - Context InsensitiveI liked the Dark Order bit, but I found a couple problems here. One is that they make mention of having acquired six lawnmowers. The second bit is when one of the goons (Fucking Silver) gets overly excited and Brodie kills him for it. Both of these are in reference to bits from Being The Elite, an online show for Buck fans. While it's nice for some of these BTE bits to get some mention on the main Dynamite show, I feel that they need to do a better job of providing context for the audience who only watches Dynamite and not the extra stuff like BTE or Dark.

To put it another way. when one of your announcers - especially one who is a former World champion - has to openly ask why there are a bunch of lawnmowers out there, it brings to light some of the holes in AEW's storytelling, which has generally been excellent. Not everyone uses social media to an excessive degree and not everyone watches the extra shows. Something the folks at AEW need to keep in mind.

So, this was AEW's worst Dynamite episode; still possessing some fun stuff and building blocks towards the future, but this is where I'm feeling it's getting painful to watch. And hey, it took them almost a year of Dynamite shows to get to this point, so that's something. Hopefully, next week's show will be a step up and that the PPV will be top-notch stuff.

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