AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 1/8/20

What Worked

-Christopher Daniels is as mechanical and bloodless as ever, but Sammy Guevara is a total star and one of the guys I most enjoy watching on this show. He is basically a 2020 version of Gino Hernandez. He does the athletic stuff as good as anyone but actually has some great sleazy heel work too. I much prefer him against old man heavyweight Dustin than old man junior Daniels, but this was still fun.

-Dustin Rhodes is going to make this side of the ledger every time he is on the show, but I actually thought this was a bit disappointing. The match flow was a little hurt by having almost all of the heat on Dustin during the commercial break, and shockingly the timing seemed a bit off on the hot tag stuff. Dustin had to stand around a bit waiting for the cutoffs, and the actual hot tag didn't have the resistance needed for real drama. Lucha Brothers don't have much experience working traditional heel tag stuff and it showed. Finish run was pretty fun, and I am surprised that Dustin went over Fenix clean. I could see a rematch really clicking.


What Didn't Work

-I agreed to take over for Eric this week, and they open with a 20 minute Private Party vs. Kenny Omega and fucking Adam Page match. Last good deed I do in 2020. This had one or two cool moments, I liked Marq Queens four consecutive dives, and there was Omega elevating one of the Private Party into a German suplex which was cool. Much of this was really rough though. The Private Party have cool spots, but their in between stuff usually looks bad, and you can still see them working through the dance steps. Also Page and Omega are terrible actors and you have to watch them work through uncomfortable and pensive facial expressions. Poor Dave Brown is stuck calling this, of all matches.

-Rhio vs. Statlander was pretty bad, and the angle during it was also completely DOA. I did really enjoy Brandi saying "They're not hurting anyone" at exactly the same time Rhio and Statlander were exchanging gentle caressing shots. The crucifix bomb where Statlander landed full weight on Rhio and sort of rolled into a pin, was as badly executed as you are going to see on TV. Dr. Luther is an amusing guy to bring in, I don't think he has done anything since that Kickstarter scam fed where the guy was creating "wrestling as a prestige television series."

-Oof the Dark Order is cornball as fuck, it has to be a bottom tenth spooky heel stable in wrestling history (think of all the ground that covers). They desperately need a big guy or two, evil cult full of tiny crossfit guys to feud with non-evil crossfit guys doesn't work at all.

-DDP hopefully sold a few Yoga Downloads, because otherwise this segment really dragged. MJF is still too open mic night for me, and they took way too long to get to the payoff. Also the payoff was MJF running in terror from QT Marshall. They should have done the same thing in a third of the time with Dougie Gilbert.


I am posting this now and adding the last match and segment tomorrow after I get some sleep