AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 4/22/20

What Worked

-I'm still not certain we've gotten an actual Sammy/Darby classic, and they've matched up several times. It's possibly because their best matches are against monsters and matched up against each other one on one they somewhat negate what the other is best at. They're easily two of my favorite five guys in AEW, but they can both likely have better matches against lesser opponents than against each other. HOWEVER, I liked this a lot, I just have a higher bar set here. It's strong throughout, but weirdly cut apart by commercials, which hurt the flow a bit. I could see the argument that the commercial layout was smart, as it allowed recovery time from some pretty big stuff, but I would have liked to see just how they handled that recovery. Instead we jumped right back into more big moves and it didn't feel right. It starts with Sammy blindsiding Darby with a tope and then hitting a nutso superfly splash to the floor, "putting" Darby through a ladder. Except the ladder doesn't budge and both of these two are going to be dealing with crushing rib pain for the next week. Darby worked on Guevara's foot and even ripped off his boot, that all lead to a cool kneebar that I would have bought as the finish. Both guys take some big spills (not a shock) and I liked Sammy's lunatic dedication to selling a foot by actually trying to do a one foot springboard cutter and a 630 where he was clearly favoring a leg. That's a great way to die, but I think he pulled it off. Love seeing these two do their thing.

-Best Brodie Lee squash so far, but I also think the other ones have been weak. His big windup clothesline looked great, that's really the only kind of stuff he should be doing. Drop the superkicks and somersault sentons.


What Didn't Work

-I was on a long phone call last week with a relative, and missed most of Dynamite. I *did* want to mention that I made it back in time for the Hager/Moxley match, and it was a real clunker. Easily the worst "Bloodsport" style match I've seen over the past few years, compeltely sluggish, both completely over their heads, no idea where to take the match, and it felt endless. In a just world, people would be dumping on that match as much as they dumped on Edge/Orton.

-To add to the discussion of Better Wrestler: Lex Luger or Kenny Omega, I like being able to throw on an old episode of Raw and see Luger take Tony DeVito to the woodshed. Omega always wants to have these extended squash matches, where he runs through a squash and then when the squash match is supposed to end he just stands there for awhile and lets someone do all of their kick combos. Alan Angels is fine I guess, but the Kenny Omega Competitive Squash structure is a real dud. He dominates, then kinda hangs around for awhile until he finishes it. Am I supposed to think Angels is a  future contender? Am I supposed to believe that every person on the roster is one quick pin away from the main event? Just squash a guy.

-"But right now, let's take a special look at Scorpio Sky" sounds like such an unnecessary vignette in 2020. But I look forward to the special looks at Scott Lost, several Gallineros, TARO, Hook Bomberry...

-Jimmy Havoc is bad, but THANK YOU Jimmy Havoc for just trying to have a normal match with Orange Cassidy, thank you for not selling the intentionally silly offense parts instead of doing that thing most opponents do where they bump across the ring for a finger poke. Most of Havoc's stuff doesn't look good (he had a nice punch and a nice forearm, and the former got a quick camera cut away because they knew Jimmy Havoc was about to attempt to punch a person). The Penelope/Kip involvement was really shoehorned in, and most of this didn't work for me. But I am much more interested in seeing someone work an actual match. Sadly, that person was Jimmy Havoc.

-Not buying Wardlow, and I'm about as easy as it gets when it comes to finding things to like about big gassed wrestlers. Lee Johnson has been the bump king of AEW squash matches, but there's only so much he can do.

-Liked the Brodie Lee squash, but that ring gear is B-A-D.

-I actually did not realize just how terrible Kip Sabian was until tonight. I know that I've never enjoyed Kip Sabian before, but I thought his match against Darby was fun (even though that was just a great Darby performance). But this? This was atrocious. Sabian looked like the absolute worst AEW worker on the roster in this match, and this was a match that had a Penelope/Brandi showdown that saw Brandi run straight past Penelope without either of them pretending to duck or act like they were avoiding each other in any way. This was Dustin working a Sabian match, and it was straight torture. Things got momentarily compelling with Dustin working a knee injury after hitting the turnbuckles. But then he had to keep selling for Kip Sabian's offense and that was when this whole thing got impossibly bad. Kip Sabian looked like he was trying out every piece of offense in his repertoire for the very first time, and I wish he was in with someone who isn't as much of a nice guy pro as Dustin. Could you see someone like Finlay bumping for that short arm clothesline? Finlay would have grabbed Sabian by the maxilla and elbowed his nose into oblivion. With no hyperbole, I can honestly say that was the worst short arm clothesline I've seen, completely beyond parody to have Sabian hitting offense lighter than the guy in sunglasses who purposely hits half of his offense lightly. I would have thought it impossible to have a 10+ minute Dustin match wind up on the bottom here, and that tells me everything I need to know about Kip Sabian. I encourage everybody to find and watch this match, just so someone can explain to me their theories on what any of Sabian's offense was supposed to be. Is Sabian's hiring like when Johnny Ace hired the wrong one legged wrestler? Was someone in AEW actually supposed to hire BLK Jeez?