AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 12/11/19

What Worked 

-I really liked Jericho's promo. I'd been off Jericho for quite some time, but his promos are very impressive within the specific environment he's working, and it's clearly because he knows the environment he's working. But...

-It appears that many people hadn't heard of QT Marshall before the AEW tag, because he was Matt Riddle's third ever opponent in what was a really good match. And I really liked this tag! We got Butcher and the Blade naturally cutting QT off from Cody, and while it looked like some of B&B's best moments came during the commercial break, the whole thing was structured simply and everyone came off well. Cody really does come off like a big deal, really looked like a guy worthy of being the star tagging with a nobody. Marshall gets to throw a couple nice punches that are treated as big, surprising moments, and he gets a fun sloppy tumbling dive to the floor onto B&B (I liked it because it looked like whenever Akira Taue would try a tope and it looked more like him stepping over the ropes to the floor real quick). I don't love a lot of Cody's offense, but a good hot tag needs good energy, and he carries that end easily.

-Overall dug Swole/Sakura, even if it went a bit past its effective runtime. It was hurt a bit by actual commercials cutting into it, and them going to the comedy spots in the final 2 minutes instead of the first 2 minutes. Sakura grabbing fists of braids by the roots and snapmaring Swole was great, made exponentially better by Swole popping her right in the jaw after warning her to lay off her head. Do you how long those braids took? Swole should have beaten the shit out of her the rest of the match. Sakura is fun and hits hard, although I wish there was some more focus to her matches, but working with Swole felt like a fun shake up.

-Shawn Spears made it look like Hangman Page has a good lariat. Shawn Spears managed to look good in ALL of his exchanges with Page, while Page was looking like Page. Is Spears the secret super worker of AEW? Page is typically the anchor who takes anyone down with him...but not Spears.

-I'm a sucker for a sneaky manager rana from the apron, and Penelope Ford had a nice one.

-Guevara continues to be the non-Darby MVP of Dynamite. This kid is money and Luchasaurus is a fun opponent for him. Guevara's bump off the top to the apron to the floor was wild, and they integrate some fun takes on spots we've seen, like Luchasaurus catching Guevara by the throat off a standing shooting star attempt. Luchasaurus throws a bunch of strike combos that shouldn't work, but most of them worked here; I especially liked his knee strike that went right to left instead of up. They kept this at a good pace and it went out at the right time.

-Wonder if they're going to run a Hager/Stunt angle where Hager mistakes Stunt for a child and spittle mouth yells at him on Twitter using seemingly random capitalization.

-Main event too long in the tooth and just about everything was shrugged off, but I can't hate on guys going through like 7 tables without me having to see any table set up time. The table bumps came off shockingly natural for being so damn frequent (and meaning so damn little) but they all looked great. Looked Great/Didn't Mean Anything feels like a cool catchphrase for AEW.

What Didn't Work

-...Jericho talked for 7 straight minutes while Moxley stood there making as many silent dumb faces as Jake Hager. I don't need there to be lively interplay, but it just came off really odd to me to have Moxley standing there dumb and confused, thumbs in belt loops. He looked like a kid who was getting a stern talking to from a teacher because he brought his paintball gun to school, and that's just not allowed, even if you DID "leave it in your locker".

-Whipped my head up to the screen way too fast when I heard Swole was going to be on my TV. That was an unnecessarily cruel trick, AEW.

-I chuckled at "shitty little lisp", but MJF ruined it with a bad fake laugh and way too much ham. I just can't take this guy seriously as a threat.

-Kenny Omega wrestles like a chorus member of Jesus Christ Superstar, the one who has to constantly be told to stop abusing jazz hands and spirit fingers.

-Brandi does not have the acting chops to pull off her new role, and I am comparing her to others in wrestling who have done this kind of cult leader role, which is not a high bar.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 11/6/19

What Worked:

-I love how Pac handled Orange Cassidy getting into the ring. Cassidy got into the ring while Pac was turned the other way, the crowd went wild, and Pac acted like he was the one getting the crowd hyped. That's a smart way for a heel to be paying attention to the crowd.

-"Undesirable to Un-goddamn-deniable" is a great line from Cody, good place to peak a promo

-Feels like the Jericho video is going to be contentious, but I liked it. At first I thought it was filled with nothing but bad acting and bad reads, but I got the tone the longer it went and I liked the presentation of a heel champ writing off his challenger. The stuff that was supposed to be funny (dumb eyed Jack Swagger making his "did I accidentally put two mouth guards in?" face, Guevara's "at 48 he's the youngest champ in AEW history" line) was actually funny. I could see people disagreeing on the overall tone, but I liked what they were going for.

-Women's tag was fun, with an especially fun performance from Jamie Hayter. I dug her aggression, loved her lariats, loved the way she would dispatch Riho with condescension. Riho isn't great but she has great energy, which goes a long way as an underdog babyface. Shanna felt like a pro, and Sakura really stuck the landing on all her sequences with Riho. The magistral spamming in the end could have looked like absolute trash, but instead it was a perfect combo of Riho's speed with Sakura's tight execution. Sakura's magistral looked like something that should finish a match.

-Brandon Cutler is a spitting image for young Sid Haig. He needs to lean into that more. A Spider Baby gimmick would be far more interesting than "also this other guy with kickpads". But we got a squash match! It didn't always look great, but damn an actual 2 minute match that wasn't hyper competitive bell to bell? Wild.

-Sammy Guevara really understands his role as the low ranked guy in the stable, and he bumped around in the best way in the main event. He knows how to play the athletic boob, great flunky charisma off him. Also, to say something nice about rhinestone cowboy Hangman Page - that cowpoke who does flips - he and Sammy had an awkward exchange, and I liked how Page cut the bullshit and just deadlifted Guevara off the mat and hit a great fallaway slam.

What Didn't Work:

-Every single wrestler in AEW is equally as skilled as every other wrestler in AEW. Every damn match is worked 51/49, totally equal footing until one guy wins. Trent has been exclusively a tag wrestler, but he can also go toe to toe for 15 minutes against Pac, who they're building as a top singles guy. Boris Zhukov wasn't going out there and working a hard fought 15 against Jake Roberts. There are ways to not completely kill Trent while still having Pac decisively win matches. But every match has to be an ultra competitive war, and it doesn't feel like a very effective way to build a decent hierarchy. Do they not want a hierarchy? Am I supposed to think that every person in the fed is equally talented? This is not even bringing up the weekly complaint that every match on Dynamite so far has had nearly the exact same pace. Evil Uno has been the only person to go out and try to slow things down, and I wasn't expecting to go into AEW being the "people should be taking more cues from Evil Uno" guy. The fart noise phantom kickout down the stretch was something that should not happen in a major fed.

-Private Party/Dark Order tag felt off, even though I liked elements of it. Uno's cannonball while Grayson hit the 450 was a great spot that deserved to be shown a lot from different angles, and I liked Uno doing things like crawling out of the corner to set up being used as a vault. But the match didn't add up to anything that ever felt cohesive.

-I don't totally understand Sakura's "heel Freddie Mercury" thing, and it stood out as even more weird since her partner was just being an outright heel. Like I get if Sakuraba would have come out doing her Mercury entrance, but it felt weird here. Plus Freddie Mercury wouldn't wear Chico Che vinyl bibs.

-I can't think of one, but has there been a cowboy wrestler lamer than Hangman Page?

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