AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 2/26/20

What Worked

-The Iron Man is kind of a conundrum for me. I think I enjoyed it overall and appreciate the physicality, but I also didn't buy into a lot of the lore behind Omega, and also I don't totally feel like watching the rest of the show now that I've sat through all of it. But I also liked it? What raised the floor was the hard contact throughout, from things like Omega dropping knees right across the jaw to PAC elbowing Omega right in the throat. So I can sit through some theatrics (there were theatrics) and some lopsided kickouts if they're also crushing each other on strikes in between "the big stuff". All of Omega's knees ruled, some really vicious high running knees that made me want to see Omega/Akiyama. Both guys had nasty suplexes, Omega's snap dragon whipping PAC into the mat, and PAC with maybe the spot of the match when he almost murders Omega on live TV with a brainbuster superplex. The big spots were all big, the shooting star through a table on the floor, PAC hitting a falcon arrow off the apron, all great crashes. But some of the drama didn't work for me, they established a couple odd recovery times, and I really disliked the finish and thought it felt cheap. I wouldn't have wanted a draw (and I don't think it should have been a draw anyway), but I also didn't want Omega just blitzing him into a finish.

-The trios had enough good moments to land it up here, and it was probably the most impressed I've been with Jungle Boy. He was really quick and had a lot of snap, really naturally flew into things (two nice dives that hit hard for his size) and had some pop on things that I've seen look punchless. Marko had a couple big bumps and cool stuff like breaking up a pin with a missile dropkick, Santana hit a great cannonball, Sammy felt a little underused but still contributed big bumps (just didn't get as much personality as we usually do). They had about 8 minutes to do something and that packed a lot of action into that time.

-Strong performance from Butcher and the Blade, a shame that a lot of the great cutoff section was shown in the small picture in picture. Picture in picture had all the good Butcher cutoffs, nice tracks stopping clotheslines and uncomplicated choking over ropes, nice quick tags to isolate. Blade fed into Best Friends' offense really well, really wish they could have been treated better than the finish we got. Good dive from Orange Cassidy.


What Didn't Work

-Not into a lot of Chuck Taylor in the tag, and I didn't like the entire match stopping for an Orange Cassidy routine. I don't hate Cassidy, but I've much more enjoyed the non-invasive use of him in AEW. I think he's good at ringside, I've laughed at some pre-match gags, and he's good for a spot live the dive in this match. I just don't like when a nice tag performance has to stand aside and wait for a routine to finish.

-Women's match didn't work for me as a whole. Shida is messy even if she has charisma, and Sakazaki acts a little too precious. It was fine, nothing horribly offensive, but there was enough disconnect with everything that I could never get into it.

-That main event interview was a real collar tugging few minutes, with Page coming off like a rebelling teen who just found out his parents are divorcing, and the Bucks both working off a script that needed a couple more rounds of polish. The Hangman Page: Hard Drinker stuff is really bad, and the Bucks comments about it and about him storming off came off wooden as hell. Jim Ross was probably the only actual strength of the segment, but this segment made that whole match come off way more dumb and childish than had they done no hype at all.