Friday, January 15, 2021

AEW Dynamite (Jan 6th & Jan 13th, 2021): New Year's Smash



The first two editions of AEW Dynamite in 2021 comprise the promotion's New Year's Smash event, both shows featuring big main events. We'll touch on both shows here, but I thought they were fairly enjoyable fare. Not quite top-tier stuff, but a solid two-hour block on both nights with some high points and one dreadfully low one each.

Let's get into it.


Night 1
January 6th, 2021

The Young Bucks & SCU defeated The Acclaimed & The Hybrid 2 in a fun tag match. Not much to say here.

Jon Moxley pops up to talk about things being shitty and promising revenge on Kenny, but he'll wait until after the title match because he doesn't want to rob Rey Fenix of his one shot. What a guy that Mox.

Cody Rhodes defeated Matt Sydal in a match that happened and would've main evented The Main Event on the WWE Network a decade ago. Then Serpentico, who had some personal interaction, attacks Cody, but Matt Sydal helps Cody out. Then Snoop Dogg climbs the top rope and splashes the poor fella and pins him. I didn't mind this actually, and I'm wondering if AEW is building towards a Snoop Dog vs. Shaq match for the celebrity championship in the works.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida defeated Abadon to retain the title in what was a pretty horrible match. All that hype and you got a girl in zombie cosplay biting the champ after dragging her under the ring for a year (neither a DQ or countout, by the way), doing the Bray Wyatt spider walk (ugh), and then getting beat anyway. Look, I like me some Shida and Abadon is a horrific looking gimmick - I mean that in a good way; she looks disgusting and more of a menace than the guy with the goofy mask - but maybe they should've been as far, far, far away from each other as possible. This was not very good, the build was a waste, this was HEADDESK territory... not a fan.

There's a way to do the zombie gimmick thing or the supernatural gimmick thing without being too corny or stupid by those standards. Undertaker and Kane are probably the best example of such gimmicks being done well before they eventually fell off the rails. Hell, I even have a soft spot for the Boogeyman when he was around. Sure, he was goofy, but it worked for him. I have yet to see such a gimmick work in the modern climate and honestly, when your best examples are Bray Fiend, Abadon, or that Dark Realm stuff on Impact, I don't expect to see anything worthwhile any time soon.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega defeated Rey Finix to retain the title in an awesome match. Rey Fenix should be in more singles matches because the guy is awesome; not much of a revelation to most of you, but I'm really impressed by this guy and hope he gets a good solid run... just don't break up the Lucha Bros if you're going to do it. You can do tag and singles at the same time. It's entirely possible.

Mox comes out afterwards to wail on Kenny with a barbed wire baseball bat, but out comes TNA Tag-Team Champions the GOOD BROTHERS to attack Mox, who has no friends before the other wrestlers realize that them GOOD BROTHERS don't work here, so they get beat up. Then the Bucks show up, tease a save, but superkick Griff "Who The Fuck Is Griff" Garrison and some other dude and all the Bullet Club guys do the 2 Sweet thing and we close Night 1 with that.

Night 2
January 13th, 2021

Night 2 begins with THAT ROTTEN MOTHERFUCKING RAT BASTARD PAC and Eddie Kingston beating the shit out of each other before PAC hits a Black Arrow for the win. Nice of AEW to begin a hot night of action with a good ol' fashioned fight where two fuckers beat the fuck out of each other. This was fun. Then buddies show up and theyz havez fightz before Lance Archer comes out and nobody dies... the song lied.

Miro defeated Chuck Taylor in a short match that was teased on Night 1, which means Chuck works for Miro until the wedding at Beach Break. Should make for interesting television and hey, anything that keeps Miro away from Super Twitch Dude gimmick man should be fun.

The Inner Circle decide to have a tag-match to see who is the Circle's official tag team. Okay.

The Dark Order attempts to recruit Adam Page. Page says next week. Chances are Page won't remember and get more drunk.

AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and AEW Tag-Team Champions The Young Bucks Perennial Jobbers The GOOD Brothers defeated Griff "Who The Fuck Is Griff" Garrison, Brian Jr., and some other dude. This was alright, it was fun. Then Mox comes out to take them all on, the Lucha Bros. come out for some action, then the Bucks show up to try and calm Mox down, but end up eating Lucha Bros. superkick-os. And segment is over.

The Dynamite edition of the Waiting Room, the interview segment hosted by Dr. Britt that was seemingly popular on Dark, debuts with Cody as a guest, who gets no word in before that Jade lady from a few weeks back shows up and talks trash to Cody about Shaq or whoever. Then some girl fights with Jade and Thunder Rosa announces that she's facing Dr. Britt at a later show... one of these days, I will get the appeal of this Jade person, because other than an imposing physique, she brings nothing to the table and the few promos she's cut have been awful. It's basically like debuting Chyna on television and making the mistake of letting her talk; not a strong point. Anyway, this Waiting Room gimmick probably should've stayed on Dark because it was really, really bad. Dr. Britt is usually a good annoying character, but she's particularly grating here. That's not a good thing.

Fuck The Revival (w/ Tully) defeated Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt when one FTR guy pinned Stunt, thus saving Jim Cornette from a coronary attack. Apparently, Tony Khan bought the rights to "Tarzan Boy" as an entrance song for Jungle Jack. That's cool. What's not cool is this match. Marko Stunt is a small dude and nothing he does seems effective. He's fine when fighting wrestling journalists in Black Label, but not so much when tasked against much bigger and more imposing opponents. I'd be one to give things a chance, but when something doesn't click, it just wasn't meant to be.

NWA Women's Champion Serena Deeb defeated Tay Conti with a Gotch Piledriver to retain the title. Perfectly fine little wrestling match between two talented women. No bullshit, no silliness. Just two fine ladies having a fine wrestling match... more than makes up for the title match from Night 1.

TNT Champion Darby Allin defeated FTW Champion Brian Cage with a crucifix roll-up to retain the title. The classic formula of big guy beating up the little guy who bounces off things before making the big comeback is applied in full force here and it's a pretty fun main event. Cage looks like a beast who got beat on a fluke roll-up and Darby is someone willing to take them licks to make the other guy look like a threat. Towards the end, Sting shows up and attacks Ricky Starks to keep him from doing anything stupid... so, at least, they're doing SOMETHING with Sting.

On a whole, two perfectly fine editions of Dynamite with some highlights and lowlights, but nothing really substantial beyond a couple bits being moved forward. Night 2 was the superior show with some better matches, but both fun shows regardless... but leave the Waiting Room on Dark, thanks.

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