-Damn, Jon Moxley and Dax Harwood had a helluva match to start the show this week, didn’t they? It was hard-hitting, violent, and really had the audience excited throughout. All things you want in an opening contest. The problem is, by the time it was over, nobody in the audience knew just what the hell to do. After the match, Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli beat up Harwood, which prompted his partner Cash Wheeler to run down and make a save. The BCC got the upper hand and continued their beat down only for Moxley, a guy that was initially cheered heavily, to flip off the crowd. Heat magnet right? NO! And that’s the disconnect. As Moxley flipped the audience off, they were chanting “BCC.” Nothing like cheering at your own disrespect, right? BCC as heels obviously isn’t working. For that matter, FTR as babyfaces against BCC isn’t working either because BCC is getting cheered. What’s leftover is a good match with nothing else around it. Is that what AEW wants to be?
Squash City
-When all else fails, do a squash match with Wardlow. If it sounds like I’m kidding, I’m not. To this point, those have been the most effective mechanism to get him over aside from working with MJF. The Undisputed Kingdom is in disarray and need of repair anyway, so starting here with Wardlow isn’t a bad play.
-No surprise seeing Daniel Garcia vs. Adam Copeland end without a finish. There simply was too much going on around these guys for them to work anything clean here. That said, the Christian Cage attack on Copeland was well executed. Cage continues to get monster heat and this attack will only help that. Plus, Garcia is freed up now to go after Cage, win the TNT Championship, and allow Cage to wrap up with Copeland in a match that doesn’t saddle Copeland with the TNT Championship when he wins the feud. Good booking.
Master of the mic
-I’ll watch Samoa Joe talk on a microphone with a title belt on his shoulder all show long. Joe was tremendous this week. He continues to give Tony Khan a reason to keep the world title on him, when maybe the plan was only to present him as champion for a little bit. Joe has restored credibility back to the world title and comes across as the top guy in the company. As world champion, that’s what you want.
-Swerve Strickland had a good night as well. Strickland leaned babyface, but didn’t abandon the entire character that got him as over as he is. It’s a balance that not all newly minted babyfaces can handle. He did and it’s essential that he continues to as he climbs the ranks in the company.
-The Toni Storm video was fine. Just fine. Her and Deonna Purrazzo have done a nice job building to their match at Revolution. It’s a shame that there are two more Dynamite episode left to go before the PPV because this match is ready for the ring.
-What the hell are we doing with the Bang Bang Scissor Gang nonsense? Seriously? This thing is DOA and everyone involved is less over because of it. Who’s it for at this point?
-A typical Young Bucks style match with Top Flight was what it was. The fireworks came after the match. The Bucks are walking a fine line with the EVP gimmick, but so far they haven’t crossed it into a territory that is to real world in nature. The angle with Schiavone brought the heat in a big way and they seem like viable heel opponents for Sting in his last match.
Sell the match Darby!
-I’ve got big problems with the Darby Allin promo. It started off excellent. Darby making the save for Schiavone got a big pop and Darby was fired up as he hit the ring like any good babyface should. On the microphone, he was clear, but didn’t talk a single bit about the angle from last week. Nothing! Instead, he pivoted into the meta world of The Bucks booking Brandon Cutler over him for the first episode of Dynamite and stayed in that world when he accidentally cued up a “Cody” chant when talking about EVP’s who were better than Nick and Matt. No mention of being attacked, barely a mention of Sting, nothing about how Sting’s sons were harmed, and nothing about how Darby’s blood was on the white suits that The Bucks were wearing. A colossal miss in terms of continuing a strong angle from the week prior. This should have led the show off since it was so important, but ignoring it completely to put focus on something that didn’t play out on television is baffling.
-Willow Nightingale got a nice win over Skye Blue. Not a bad match either.
Nothing says Valentine’s Day like “Death Match”
-If I never see a holiday themed street fight or death match again, I’ll be one happy guy. It’s a death match, folks. You don’t want the reaction from an audience watching to be laughter after dangerous thumbtacks pour out of a heart shaped box. Yet, it was, and that’s the problem with these. There should be a reaction of pure horror and chaos. Death matches should cause the audience to want to look away. This had none of that. Cassidy vs. Taven certainly didn’t call for a death match stipulation, but hey, it was Valentine’s Day. Both men did what they could and put their bodies through hell to try and make it work. The premise didn’t, so the match never really had a chance.