AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 1/22/20

What Worked

-Is it possible to like a tag match without liking any of the guys involved? Because this felt like it had a really good structure and ramped up much better than a lot of AEW matches (which seem to have no rhyme or reason to their build because it's ALL finishing stretch). This built really nicely, just with guys mostly doing things I didn't care for. But build is important and also yes, JR did compare Frankie Kazarian's headlock to Danny Hodge and Ed Strangler Lewis. Kenny twisted Scorpio's wrist for a long time and contorted his body like he was holding in painful gas, Page throws punches so that his inner wrist is smacking against his opponent's head, and there are plenty of do-si-dos that look dumb. Fans also chant Cowboy Shit at Page after he does a kip up, and I foolishly think they are saying he's a shitty cowboy before realizing they are into it. Gross. Page's lariats actually looked good, Omega's chops and shoulderblocks landed big, Page took a gnarly Kazarian German suplex on his head, and I thought the big suplexes and top rope danger came at a good time in the match. We got a real good save and the pacing actually felt right. This was a very good bad tag match.

-She eats up a ton of TV time, but Britt Baker is in the Bahamas and she got the vacation braids to prove it. Needed some beads to seal the deal, but that is a white woman on a cruise. UPDATE: Janela did it better. THAT is a man committing to being a white woman on a cruise. Goddamn Britt, do SOMEthing right.

-Jericho's body is getting midway between Ishii and Park, and I dig it. Beefier the better. Weight belt to hold in that tummy overhang and love handles? Hell yeah, great damn idea. Jericho and LAX are a fun team, liked them all in their trios. Didn't really love the match itself, that's below, but Santana and Ortiz bring professionalism to a tag like this, and Jericho needs to just start working like mid 2000s Pierroth.

-MJF's grade school play heel shtick is unbearably bad, but I like that he held a tight body vice during the small screen commercial break, really posted up on his arms to sell that he was tightening that vice. That's a nice touch.

-Moxley/Pac was a good main event worked around a silly premise: Moxley had his right eye bandaged, and PAC kept going after it because it's his weakness. Elbows to the eye, great kneedrop to the eye, would always go back to that eye whenever he was in a jam, and the commentary crew (Jericho included) all talked about how smart PAC was by going after Moxley's weak eye. But...IT'S AN EYE!! It is literally ALWAYS a weakness!! If you target somebody's eye throughout a fight, it doesn't matter if the guy's eyeball started at 100%, you're TARGETTING A FUCKING EYEBALL. How many weaker parts of the human body are just sitting out in the wide open to target? "Well, Moxley had a sore throat earlier, so it's really smart for PAC to be stomping right on his larynx like that"..."You know I saw Moxley riding his bike around shore earlier today, and maybe too much. Word is he has a tender groin, and PAC dropping several knees right into Moxley's balls is only weakening his scrotum"...If they all think it's a smart strategy for PAC to be targetting Moxley's dumb eye, and PAC is fine just targetting someone's eye, how is this not his strategy for every single person he faces? Moxley had a bandage on his eye, thus making it a target, thus making me think I made a mistake putting this match up top here. "I think my 'Please Don't Stomp On My Tender Foot Bones" shirt is already making very clear my stance on stomping on my foot bones, sir."


What Didn't Work

-Britt Baker is really really terrible at running the ropes, and a ton of her offense is based around running the ropes. Why do so many of the AEW women look like they're moving in slow mo when running the ropes? They do some misdirection rope running here that was so bad, so slow, and so ugly, Kelly missing a super slow clothesline while Baker power walks right by her, changes direction, slowly passes her again, just awful. She needs to do the Santino power walk spot and figure out a way to get heat from that. Kelly has a great look for TV, but they keep bringing these girls in to debut against Baker, and Baker clodhops all over them without giving them a ton. It's rough.

-You think Hager has a dedicated polo drawer, or hangs them all neatly in a closet?

-Jericho trios was kind of a mess, almost entirely due to the babyface team. Stunt is a charisma machine, but I am getting very very tired of him playing to the crowd for several seconds before any single move he hits. It's the worst of RVD, just making people stand around while you mug to the crowd, then make them stand some more when your move requires other people to lift and swing you into opponents. The babyface team doesn't have enough super impressive spectacular spots (though Stunt's 450 did look great) and none of them are good at gluing any of it together, so the interactions always come off so awkward.