AEW: Dynamite Workrate Report 10/2/19

Well this is embarrassing. My DVR messed up and didn't record the first 40 minutes of this. Whoops. I will assume the first 40 minutes of the show were just spent lightly sledgehammering a throne to completion. We'll have to flesh this out when Phil or I are able to watch the rest of this show, but I still have plenty to comment on for now.

What Worked: 

~The crowd was damn hot for the show, and that's something that's going to be at least a little infectious. The building looked full, crowd was loud and into it, and didn't appear to be loud in a way that was taking the attention for themselves.

~Main event trios was really hot, really fun, and the Moxley/Omega angle in the middle delivered (if only for the ending alone). They really went go go go for the big main event, and I thought everyone looked good. I was actually digging Omega early on (not common for me), he threw a couple nice shots and will dump himself on his own head to pull off a rana. I dug Jericho catching a second rana attempt and turning it into the Walls, only to eat superkicks from the Bucks. LAX took a couple big bumps to the floor, Bucks' flying looked really great (the tornillo to the floor, and the dive out one side of the ring only to come back with a moonsault to the floor looked fantastic), and LAX was able to show some good personality on offense and on the apron. On paper it looked like it would be easy for them to be overwhelmed by being in with the biggest names in the fed, but this just made them look like they belong with the biggest names. I wish they didn't cut entirely away from the match during the Omega/Moxley brawl, but thought the brawl itself was good. All of the head ramming into the locked door looked good, and holy shit that double arm DDT through a glass table was a tremendous way to end a brawl. Omega took that bump like he was Shane McMahon trying to get dad to notice him.

~Dustin Rhodes got arguably the biggest face pop of the night for running in after the main event trios was impossibly great to see.

~I thought the commentary was overall strong. Jim Ross is fairly useless, but the three man booth actually seemed to make him more effective. Tony Schiavone was a real asset in there, and I never thought I would be so happy for Schiavone's return to wrestling. Ever since popping up in MLW last year he's been a real treat, a reinvigorated old pro. It's great to see. JR in a 2 man setting just tells the same stories and relies on people feeding him information to get over the same jokes and references he's been making for years. Adding a third man means he's not so much of a focus, and things never go silent after a reference bombs, and no fake laughter is necessary. And I liked his line about Omega getting a good match out of a broomstick as Omega beat Moxley with a mop.


What Didn't Work:

~All of the guys in the crowd who were making a genuinely shocked hands on head faces for Jake Hager of all people. Is his appearance a) actually shocking, or b) someone to get excited for? He's a pretty known quantity, and always felt better on paper than in execution. I'm glad the crowd responded with such enthusiasm, but damn these reactions were like me if Regal made a surprise return or something. If they were flipping out over Hager, how big will their reaction be for MVP, or Damien Sandow, or Paul Birchall? The arena screaming "WE THE PEOPLE" sounded so damn loud that it sounded like a crowd finishing "...BECAUSE STONE COLD SAID SO" in 1999. For Jake Hager? The guy has been on TV constantly for a decade. There are probably 600 Jack Swagger matches on the Network. The book has seemingly been written on who this dude is. But I cannot deny how damn loud that pop was.