AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 4/8/20

What Worked

-I have never cared for Lance Archer, always felt like he came off like a real goof and a guy playing at being a hoss without being one, but his AEW usage has been great so far. This match wasn't as Deeply Uncomfortable as last week's, but he killed southern indie guy Alan Angels, and I laughed as Jericho managed to (intentionally) call Angels a different name every time he had to say it. Alan Eagleson was my favorite, and the best was that he was integrating them casually into the commentary (not making jokes and then elbowing ribs after).

-Very smart to do Baker's 2nd hour promo without her washing any blood off her face. Dried face blood promos are universally great. But can she really fix her own teeth if they get messed up, even if she IS a dentist?

-Don't believe I've seen Lee Johnson before but that is exactly how you bump for a big squash match. I love how he took the half nelson suplex on his side, made it look more dangerous than taking a stomach bump.

-Cody/Spears I think went a bit long and don't think Cody should have given up so much to the 10 guy, but overall thought it delivered. Spears is really bad about standing still waiting for offense, but he's quite good at taking offense. I don't think the match would work as well without making Cody's okay tope look good by bouncing across the stage, and I loved how he took the two rolling CrossRhodes near the finish. His pop up butterfly suplex was nice and I actually dug the match ending with a pinned figure 4. It did feel a little cute (especially with Jericho and Schiavone immediately saying they'd never seen that happen, felt a bit produced), but I liked it. The title tournament has potential to produce a few good matches, this was a decent start.

-I don't think I'd want Jericho on commentary every week, but I mostly liked his work here. He and Tony were in the tough spot of having to think the comedy tag was funny, but he managed to do heel commentary without just burying everything in sight and actually putting over action. Plus he made fun of Cody's tattoo which is fair and necessary.


What Didn't Work

-What a sometimes good and oftentimes incredibly bad Baker vs. Shida match that was. There was hardway blood! There were a couple of genuinely stiff shots! There was also an abundance of extremely embarrassing exchanges that looked like they belonged nowhere near televised pro wrestling show. I challenge anyone to find me a worse wrestling sequence from 2020 wrestling TV than that limp first few minutes of this match. They went through this shoving sequence that looked like neither of them would be able to break through the finish line of a marathon. Neither of them looked like they could run ropes, and it peaked when Shida whipped Baker into the ropes and was supposed to miss a dropkick, and threw that dropkick literally the second she let go of Baker. Had Baker not held onto the ropes, Shida would have still missed that kick by 8 feet. These two are both really great at doing sequences of moves without having any idea what the sequences are supposed to look like or what they're supposed to be replicating. They spend several minutes seemingly trying to make as little contact with each other as possible, and then Britt Baker throws two potato shots from the mount and I just had no idea what this match was. I'm not positive Shida can throw an enziguiri that gets above someone's shoulder, because every time she throws one it lands waist to shoulder. And every time I think "maybe she was trying to throw it to that spot?" but then it's always clear by her opponent's time stand still selling that it was just a botch. The gutbuster on the turnbuckle looked good, Shida's running knee looked good, Britt's nose got busted open nicely and that made for some good visuals, but there were stretches of this that were U-G-L-Y.

-My least favorite thing about AEW comedy matches is that they always go main event distance, and that they're always an unintelligible mess of head drops and yucks. Who is dumb enough to go out there and take a couple of dangerous moves when someone else is going to sell it the same as a jockstrap rubbed in the face? The dynamics are so weird. I liked the gag of Nakazawa applying baby oil to make Trent's chops slip off his body, liked Trent's jumping piledriver, and wish we could have had this match go half as long as it did.

-Brodie Lee has had nothing but bad ill-fitting gear since the awkward Bludgeon Brothers port wine gear. I'm not sure what his gear is supposed to be but it looks like it came from Hot Topic's Corpse Bride Collection deadstock.