AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 12/9/20

What Worked

-I wasn't really feeling the Bucks/Hybrid2 match, but the more ridiculous shit got kicked out of, the more I got into it. If you're gonna get crazy with it, get crazy with it. If you're going to indulge, indulge. This blew several minutes past where I assumed it was going to end, and that somehow wound up working in favor of the match. I don't love Nick Jackson's superkick as a finisher, but I love it as a cut off spot, and there were some great cut off kicks here. My favorite spot of the match was Evans missing the Angelico-assisted 450, and basically landing face first into a superkick. When the timing is that tight, it's such a great looking spot. The whole match felt like it was Jack Evans kicking out of one Bucks finisher after the other, then getting up two seconds later to hit another crazy flip, and that's the kind of BS I can get into. If you're going to have a bunch of kickouts, just go for it and through everything else out the window. That's what they did, that's why it worked. 

-The match itself was a little messy, but how could I not get behind FTR beating the hell out of Brian Pillman Jr.? Dax especially seemed to really be going after him, and it looked awesome. I loved Cash baiting Griff Garrison around the ring and back into being stopped by the ref, allowing them to hit a great Demolition Decapitation on Pillman. Dax's chops and elbows really sang off Pillman's body, and I like the way the tag was worked as a real hierarchy tag. Varsity Blondes have won a few matches on Dark, get their shot on Dynamite, get mostly run over by FTR. Having that kind of slow progress is a really satisfying way to present wrestling for me, feels similar to working Kings Road guys up the card. Pillman got to land a really great punch on Dax on the floor, and I love how Dax sold it like his orbital bone just got hit with a wrench. 

-Dustin took a big bump off the apron and hit a nice bulldog finish on Ten, though any time Dustin is on TV I think he should get at least 4 minutes. Dustin is a smart enough worker to have a special 4 minute match, anything shorter than that feels like a waste of bullets. They also managed to make a couple jokes about his Seven gimmick while avoiding a "we know what THAT means" wink, with Tony hitting the right tone with his "well he doesn't want to go by THAT number".

-Abadon looked like a real savage murdering Tesha Price with elbows in the corner and an awesome stranglehold STO. I don't know what she'll look like in a full match, but her squash work has been compelling. 

What Didn't Work

-I still don't know what to expect from Sting in AEW, and I'm not really excited for whatever it might be. I've never been a big Sting guy (nothing personal, just didn't have cable growing up so child me had no idea who Sting even was), and I can't imagine becoming a Sting guy now that he is in his 60s. 

-I kind of want someone new to throw a glass of water into Shaq's face every couple weeks, never actually leading to any kind of match, only used as a way to get a bunch of different comical dripping Shaq reaction faces. That, or I want a Shaq/Brandi street fight. 

-It feels like a crime to put an Eddie Kingston match down below, but that trios match had too much awkward miscommunication. Fenix looked bad, and honestly he hasn't looked very good ever since that awful match against his brother where he got dropped on his head. The camera caught him missing an early kick on Blade by nearly two feet, and his performance didn't get better. Butcher and Blade (mainly Butcher) were not going to be the ones to help him get back on the page, and Fenix/Butcher got hung up on a time stand still loop, trapped in a Rainmaker set up for way too long, neither sure who was supposed to turn around. At one point it looked like Kingston was trying to set up a blind tag to Butcher and Blade, but both of them just stood on the apron while Kingston yelled at them repeatedly to get in the ring, before he just went back to beating on Fenix himself. The only good from this match came from Kingston himself, since Butcher and Blade didn't seem to understand that they were supposed to be cutting off the ring. Kingston's beatdown on Fenix looked good, and I dug the way he took a beating from Lance Archer, while also doing stuff like holding onto Archer's leg from the mat, to keep him close. He took a clunky headscissors from Fenix, and sadly couldn't do much to catch a Fenix tope con hilo as Fenix landed short. The match finishing powerbomb/neckbreaker on Fenix looked intentionally gentle, possibly because his short tope con hilo landed him harder on the back of his neck than this finish would have. Maybe it would be a good idea for Fenix to not wrestle for awhile? 

-I am in the MJF in ring > MJF mic (but I mean that as a compliment, not the I suppose obvious take that it is), but this MJF/Orange Cassidy match was not good. There was a lot of work based around Cassidy's hand, which gets instantly forgotten once it's time for Cassidy's comeback, but - this will surprise you - comes back for one spot and one spot only and this hand that injured hand that was not even acknowledged for several minutes was now suddenly sold more than it had been sold in any other part of the match. Cassidy was good at taking MJF's offense, and MJF was especially good at feeding Cassidy's comeback, really leaning into everything and planting himself on all things that required it. Sadly, the best part of the match was probably the locker room babyfaces emptying out to cheer Orange on, but it all happened during the commercial break. That kind of noise would have been cool to hear.