AEW Dynamite

[Powder]

What I will give to AEW over the WWE on their TV shows (I never watch Rampage) is that there is significantly less repetition. For instance, on RAW or we have gotten RKBro vs the Alpha Academy and/or the Street Profits about a dozen or more times in a few months. AEW does not repeat matches for the sake of it. They also do not have every wrestler wrestle on each show. Sometimes they do not have wrestlers on the show at all.

I know that the WWE wants Bianca and Roman on the show every week, but Lesnar proved that sometimes less is more. WhenLesnar was there, it was promoted and made into an event. Now we just know it is the obilgatary Roman segment/promo.

I think that the WWE’s roster is a little too small, especially the Women’s division. How many times have we already watched Rhea vs Liv, or Rhea vs Nikki? There are just so many opponents. The WWE has cut so many people, when I think they needs to add. Just addding Cody immediately makes new and fresh feuds for him, BUT I would not have him wrestle every week, otherwise he also runs out of opponents real quick.

Now imagine if the WWE adds 6 new people to their rosters, that instantly adds hundreds of combinations. Right now there are 33 male wrestlers, and any given week the math tells us that we could have 528 different combination of one on one matches, but adding 6 more people gives 741, 213 more ad different matches.

So when it comes down to it,AEW feels fresher because of the lack of repetition, which could be a reason to why Dynamite is consistently praised. It’s been tree years, so the novelty has worn off, but there is still a huge difference in the shows. Yes AEW is a wrestling show, who WWE is an entertainment program, but still, and the heart of it, they sell the same thing.

[PEN15v2]

Those are common comments.. My guess is WWE doesn't have a problem with repeating matches that don't get announced as they are part of a bigger story. I believe the need to address it, but that it's not as a big a deal as the IWC believes it is.

As for the roster size, WWE's is too small due to how they big their shows. You're absolutely right that it's extremely uncommon to have the anyone from the midcard to the main event to have a week off, unless selling an injury. It's something that's been praised about AEW from day one, but their top guys don't have to be on every week, and often have weeks between appearances. In this case, AEW's roster is possibly too big because despite having this formula, it seems I still hear complaints that certain names aren't on enough.

I say all this not watching Dynamite except for a single episode since early in the pandemic. So I bet I'm wrong. But it is easily the best thing about the AEW formula.

[Oliver]

I said it before elsewhere, but I do think there is an element of AEW 'doing too much' on Dynamite. There's an bit of a need, currently, given the Owen Hart tournament, to have some more high profile matches and I get that, but I don't think we needed Darby/Hardy to be No DQ, I definitely don't think we needed them both risking their spines multiple times for a TV main event. I get what they were going for, it's basically an older veteran of the high flying/risk taking style and his young pretender going at it, but there was nothing in that match in terms of spots that was needed, and they could have had a normal wrestling match and still taken some risks but probably preserved their bodies more.

I think it's part of what modern wrestling is now, though, and AEW as a promotion is buying into that. For some, it's what they want, and for a whole market of fans who are specifically 'anti-WWE' it's what they think of as 'good wrestling'. The in ring product often isn't for me, but sometimes the stories are.

I've been sticking with only watching the 5 'top moments' or whatever it is that AEW puts up on Youtube for Dynamite recently, because to be honest that's all I need. I'll probably give Double or Nothing a look because I've enjoyed what I've seen of the build for Page/Punk, hopefully there'll be some other big feuds that pay off which have been built, and Thunder/Serena should be good. But I'm mostly just here for the stories.

One thing I have been keeping an eye on is Rampage, though. It's a nice, concise, hour show, and reminds me of early (Hulu-era) NXT in what it delivers.

[Team Farrell]

I said it before elsewhere, but I do think there is an element of AEW 'doing too much' on Dynamite. There's an bit of a need, currently, given the Owen Hart tournament, to have some more high profile matches and I get that, but I don't think we needed Darby/Hardy to be No DQ, I definitely don't think we needed them both risking their spines multiple times for a TV main event.

Oh, I agree 10,000%! Darby vs Hardy for the first time ever in a straight up singles match would have drawn the same number as Darby vs Hardy in an anything goes match hastily promoted on Twitter.

Then you could draw an even bigger TV number if that match ends with some level of controversy where Jeff won unexpectedly by DQ or count out (maybe they're both fighting on the floor with Darby in total control, Darby takes a bad bump and Jeff just barely beats the count to advance). Then a frustrated Darby can come back and claim that now that he's been in the ring with him, he knows Jeff isn't the Jeff of 20 years ago, and only won because Darby beat himself.

Darby can "accidentally" cost his hero Jeff against Adam Cole in the next round to throw some fuel on the fire and boom, now you have a set-up for anything goes. And it's natural for Darby to take on a little more of the aggressor role as the defacto heel, but after the fact they can make up and move on as babies.

Promote it for a few weeks on Dynamite and you might do a killer number.

[T.O.]

They still need to sign Hogan.

[Benjamin Button]

Does AEW have a single wrestler not in a faction? I was thinking Adam page but isn’t he a dark order guy?

[Prime Time]

Very NJPW, that. Everyone there is in a faction to the point that the non-faction guys become a pseudo stable by default.

[Team Farrell]

So...maybe this is a silly question: why did they have a full round of "qualifiers" for the Owen Hart Cup? Weren't the qualifiers just the first round, and these "jokers" got a bye? This has always perplexed me about a tournament where nearly everyone in the quarterfinals has a match prior to that match.

[PEN15v2]

It made sense to me in the 90s with the King of the Ring, when it was a qualifier to enter a one-night tournament. But if it's a tournament spread out over several weeks is silly.

[Oliver]

So...maybe this is a silly question: why did they have a full round of "qualifiers" for the Owen Hart Cup? Weren't the qualifiers just the first round, and these "jokers" got a bye? This has always perplexed me about a tournament where nearly everyone in the quarterfinals has a match prior to that match.

Thought exactly the same the other day - I think there's been a qualifier for everyone to actually get into the tournament, and they've not exactly been low profile names in those matches, so they might as well have just run another round of bouts.

[Oliver]

Decided to sit down with a few bits of Double or Nothing again because, to be honest, I realised I tuned out some time after Death Triangle vs House of Black, which still sits as the highlight of the show even after going back.

Anarchy In The Arena was exactly what it needed to be, although the ending was a little bit flat in the context. I assume we're switching into Kingston vs Danielson now, which should really deliver if it hits it's potential. I loved that it opened with everyone brawling during Wild Thing playing.

I have no idea why they put O'Reilly vs Allin or the mixed six-person tag on the show, as neither was welcome in any sense. The finals of the Owen Tournament were disappointing matches, even if they probably should have been on the show. Bucks/Hardy was about twice as long as it should have been, and was absolutely brutal throughout it's run time anyway. The TBS thing didn't need to be on the show either.

Both the tag titles and main event were really good matches, but didn't better the six man I mentioned above.

Overall I came away feeling the same as I do after a lot of the big AEW shows - it was overloaded, overlong, and in places overbooked. They really need someone to sit and set these shows out to be much more concise, because the PPV itself ended up being way over five hours, I think, and there was way too much stuff that felt like it was filling time and could have just been on a Dynamite/Rampage.

[Team Farrell]

Has the show ended yet? I thought it was still going.

Out of the main card, I would have chopped the Women's and TBS Title matches. I know, I know, I'm cutting the women's matches. But the TBS one was pretty bad, and the Women's one was completely unbuilt to other than the last two weeks. Before that, Rosa had been off TV for two months. You don't get bonus points for having a Women's Title match on your card if it has no build to it.

I'd also have cut the Tag Team Title match. It was pretty hastily thrown together over two or three weeks, and is really a glorified Dynamite match. Put it on this week's show.

I Also MIGHT have pulled the mixed six person tag. That one's tough. You want PVZ on the show because she's a legit outside star and you hope that it sells PPVs. But I'm not sure how much of that it did. Her wrestling debut being on Dynamite with a few weeks of promotion might draw big eyeballs, though. Plus that would have put the six person tag in Sky's hometown with his Lakers belt where he's going to be big time over.

I don't know why Kyle and Darby was added at all. Kill that, too.

Kill those five matches and you've got a reasonable seven match main card that runs just over ran hour shorter.

[Oliver]

I've got to be honest, I don't even know who PVZ is outside of her AEW stuff. Presumably UFC?

[Prime Time]

Ex-UFC, now a bareknuckle boxer, but she was famous enough that she'd already done some crossover stuff in her UFC days (DWTS etc.)

[Team Farrell]

Yeah, she was on Dancing with the Stars. She's cute and personable and has a lot of male fans for the obvious reason, but has a lot of female fans from DWTS. She's a pretty legit star. She's not Ronda or Connor, but maybe a step or two down from them.

She's a big enough star that she left UFC because she could make more money with product endorsements on Instagram and on her fan site.

She's got potential to draw eyeballs to AEW, but I don't think her fanbase was going to shell out $50 for a PPV for her first match. That's a Dynamite ratings getter, and then you try to sell them on the rest of your product.

Unfortunately, AEW has done a horrible job at attracting and maintaining female fans. Believe it or not, the average woman wants to see strong, kickass women, but is turned off when they see those women bleeding buckets to be marks for themselves.