2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Tornado of Love for Darby and Sting

 

5. Sting/Darby Allin vs. Big Bill/Ricky Starks AEW Dynamite 2/7/24

ER: I must be the easiest to surprise person who routinely spends double digit hours per week watching and writing about pro wrestling. Maybe it's my bad memory or the glacial pace I take projects through, but I am frequently surprised by how good the guys I like watching are. Darby Allin has the ability of surprising me more than any of my other modern favorites, a real innovator of shocking and death defying indestructibility. He shouldn't be possible, but he's real and he's incredible. Big Bill catching Darby's tope and in one fluid long motion and turning it into a high swinging Boss Man Slam on the floor just might be the most expertly executed momentous Large Man Rey Mysterioing Darby spots we've ever been gifted. It's a seamless, dangerous, eye popping moment. A Darby Classic, which is a thing I have said a comical amount of times. But Darby is special because he is also good at every other little thing, not just the biggest most incredible wrestling spots of the year. I don't know if anyone in wrestling runs into a boot as well as Darby. I don't know if anyone ever has. He makes it look like a guy getting knocked out by a boot he never saw coming. He does things like that every match. He's incredible, we've all known he's incredible. He is always Must See. He is probably my favorite wrestler and I am routinely surprised by how good my favorite wrestler is...

but I am still in absolute disbelief that Sting is this damn good. I can't be alone here. Sting is fucking 65 years old. What is remarkable, is that I'm pretty sure that 65 years old Sting is my favorite Sting ever. Sting, a legend with several eras and years and runs and matches to be the personal favorite wrestler of millions, has captured my heart so surprisingly in his team with Darby. Sting was a guy I didn't even know existed until I was 10 or 11 years old. We didn't have cable TV and I barely even knew WCW existed. My friend Justin had a Sting wrestling buddy, and he told me it was Sting, but this man was less real to me than Gordon Sumner. To me it just looked like an off brand Ultimate Warrior doll. I did not grow up with Sting as my hero, and by the time I was watching WCW he was just about to become inactive for an entire year. It was an uphill battle getting into Sting as an adult. I've never even gotten too into Sting retroactively. I don't think he would come anywhere close to making a Top 100 Guys list. 

But Sting at 65 is a real game changer for me. All it took to get behind Sting, I guess, was the now built in vulnerability of being an old human, combined with a willingness - or a sicko urge - to take a clothesline on the floor the way he did here from Big Bill. Sting has been in his Gypsy Joe era on and off for over a decade and even with his crazy-at-the-time-crazier-in-retrospect run in TNA I still wouldn't have expected his AEW run. It's not the balcony dives, either, even though holy shit the balcony dives right?! Can you imagine even cleaning the gutters on your house when you're 65? My parents used to invite me up to use the pool and BBQ just to spring a surprise gutters check on me before I left. They were probably right to do so, because I wouldn't want to think of my dad climbing around on the roof at 65. So Sting is doing leaps off of his nice but modest Colonial, and folks that is crazy. But more than the great risks from a man whose career looked mostly finished 20 years ago, it's that he just wrestles harder than I can ever remember. I believe in this babyface hero more than I have at any point in my life. I love this babyface with a tastefully redone hairline, who throws his entire body into his punches and back elbows in a way he never did when he was 40. I think his form has gotten better on almost all of his offense. He's like if John Cena came back and did all of his old offense but with harder landings, harder impact, agonizing misses, and real stakes. Sting throws himself into every hit and miss in a way I've never seen from him, and I am finally a Stinger in my 40s. 

The finish is a spectacular moment. Of course it is. Darby takes himself and Bill out of the match by Human Backpacking onto him on the apron, navigating his torso like an attacking ape, riding him off the apron through a table, forcing Bill to bump by gouging his thumbs into the big man's eyes like a lonely toymaker. Taz was right to make fun of Big Bill's mint green boots all match, by the way. Sting had a great run with Ricky Starks, who is a wrestler I don't love but one I view as a little better than the other Austin Theories that have been clogging up cards with what people refer to as their Potential. He will at minimum take a nice bump to the floor and I was impressed by his comparative Face Acting restraint in handling an I'm Sorry I Love You moment. The timing on Sting hitting that exposed buckle was a work of Bret Hart or Jerry Lawler level of brilliant timing. Sting's shoulder-only kickout after Starks' spear true perfection. His Scorpion Death drop has never looked heavier or as conquering. I don't know if there's been a more exciting tag team run this decade than Darby Allin and a guy whose biggest year in pro wrestling was the year before Darby Allin existed. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 9/11 - 9/17

AEW Collision 9/16/23

Bryan Danielson/Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricky Starks/Big Bill

MD: I take no joy in writing this one, but come on. What was Claudio even doing here? I get the constraints. Punk is fired. Danielson is rushed into that spot. The BCC is an entity. Claudio makes sense as Danielson's partner. Yuta might be hurt (maybe? You wouldn't want him straying from heel either though) and Mox just wrestled Bill on Wednesday and Claudio makes a lot of thematic sense as a counterbalance to the big lug. Moreover, part of the appeal of the BCC is that they can fight anyone. That's part of the gimmick. Except for Claudio vs Kingston, a blood feud, even if one side wants blood more than another, is Wednesday and anchoring Grand Slam as much as anything else. 

Is this an insurmountable situation? No. In a match with Bryan Danielson in it, it really ought to be an opportunity, right? It's not an easy or painless opportunity. It's actually pretty hard. How do you, Claudio Castagnoli, wrestle a match in an appropriate way when your opponents are heels, are going over, need to look strong in the case of Bill and capable but vulnerable in the case of a Ricky Starks that will stooge to the point of hitting his pose in the midst of a giant swing. You have to keep heating up the feud for the Texas Death Match. You have to do all of this while continuing to further the Eddie feud, a feud already hampered by Eddie leaning too hard in the fact that Claudio "didn't do business," whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. Everything would be better served here if Eddie just said that Claudio ran to New York instead of FIGHTING him one last time to see who was the best man. But he's not saying that because, one assumes, he's too focused on the real life issue that Claudio wouldn't lay down for him and give him his win back? Just a guess, but it's the best one I have, because this wording is definitely not the path of least resistance otherwise.

So so you're Claudio in that situation. Maybe you lean into the aloofness. This is a world you didn't make, in your mind, that you don't want to be in. You just want this over with. You play up being a tough guy babyface strongman and Danielson's partner and you pretend nothing's wrong. Good luck managing that when Kevin Kelly's going on about how you have Eddie on your mind. It doesn't matter. To do that you would have had to play things up even more. 

Maybe you're an absolute bastard in there instead. Maybe you take liberties. Maybe you're the heel who the babyface calls upon when things are dire, Colon teaming with Abdullah the Butcher in Puerto Rico or Lawler teaming with Jos LeDuc in Memphis. That sort of thing, just with a bit more actual bond between the partners. Starks is smaller than you. You bully him and he bumps and sells and stooges for you. He's good enough that he can still be the heel in that scenario. You get right in Big Bill's face. You don't care if he's got inches on you; you're the real monster out of the two. It's a headache overall, sure, but own it. Find a path that makes it work.

What did Claudio do? Not option A, not option B. He was just Claudio. He was present in the match. He wrestled the match. He was competent and capable and this match set up next week's Collision and didn't do a damn thing to help Grand Slam along. It wasn't that Claudio was worried about Kingston or not worried about Kingston or that he was pretending not to be worried about Kingston. It was just that Eddie didn't exist. Mad King's screaming into the night, is pouring out his heart in a promo, is picking at an ugly red scab over a decade old; you wouldn't know it from looking at his opponent. The best wrestlers in the world make the most of the most difficult opportunities. I wish Claudio had done so here.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/28 - 9/3 Part 2

AEW All Out 9/4/23

Bryan Danielsion vs Ricky Starks (Strap Match)

MD: Well, this was special, huh? Where to begin here? What's my "in?" It has to be just how thoroughly this was thought out. In some ways, it felt like the exact opposite of the Okada match. There, Danielson, arm broken, had to adapt in-ring against an opponent he'd never faced, with a language barrier, in the main event of one of the biggest matches of the year. Here? Here, according to Danielson, they had run every single beat of this not just in front of an agent or Khan but in front of the AEW doctor. Like I said last week, we don't know what we don't know as it pertains to how he calls or plans matches generally, but we do know about these two matches, and I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's the most impressive sort of range in the world. Think about it. How is it not an amazing testament to Danielson that he was able to work two completely different sorts of matches with such limitations and such stakes and that he completely nailed both.

Watch the thing back. He doesn't utilize his arm for anything. He doesn't lift anything heavier than the strap the whole match. There are one or two moments where he bumps onto the arm (his own corner dropkick and when Starks cuts him off with the clothesline out of the corner, which was such an important moment in the match). There isn't a single "move" out of Danielson or Starks in this one. Everything is a strike, using the strap, or using a part of the ring as a weapon, and even then, for those latter bits it's mostly jamming a head against something (stairs, post).

And yet somehow this coexisted on a show which had two other violent maulings in Mox vs Cassidy and the Darby match but also a super-maximalist encounter between Omega and Takeshita. And while some might disagree, to me, this eclipsed them all. It was the combination of brutality and character, the paradoxical weight of repetitive blows and the basking in moments between them. Starks created so much of the motion here, did so much of the physical lift, but just about anyone on the roster could have done that. What just about anyone could not do was to match Danielson in the moments in-between.

He started the match by running, stalling, checking his pulse, slapping a hand. During the ambush, he blew a kiss to the crowd. After opening Danielson up with the weight belt shot, he ran over to kiss a woman's hand (thus obfuscating the blading). As the match went on, he'd scream in agony or ecstasy depending on his point of advantage in the match. He'd gloat that it was his house or recoil in defiant disbelief as Danielson shrugged off blows and promised retribution. While he didn't wear his crimson mask as well as Danielson, years of emotion, of struggle and disappointment and perseverance bled out of the chip on his shoulder, all building to that moment at the end when the camera focused directly on face as his windpipe proved to be less formidable than his willpower and consciousness left his eyes. 

This was planned to a perfection, key emotional moments balanced carefully with the wild excess of leather striking flesh again and again and again, wild and reckless and measured and precise. It was the perfect combination of far too much and barely anything at all, the bridge between them blood and emotion and violence, that ultimate alchemy of what pro wrestling can be at its very best and most primal, not the reality of war, but the ultimate illusion of it.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 7/31 - 8/6

AEW Collision 8/5/23

CM Punk (c?) vs Ricky Starks

MD: This had a ton of time to breathe and it's probably the best I've ever seen Starks look. Just the right combination of energy, attitude, and a chip on his shoulder; he looked like a star. They built off of the last match with bits like holding the ropes open, and played right into a very split crowd reacting to two tweeners. The entire feeling out process (worked like a title match opening) was buoyed by the loud and consistent dueling chants, highlighted by both guys getting to do each other's taunts. The first commercial break had Punk in control doing the Hogan shtick and playing with the crowd. The second commercial break had Starks in control and Punk working from underneath with hope spots and comebacks and a crowd that was more inclined to just chant for Punk.

Steamboat added tiny bits of specialness without overshadowing what was going on. That included coming out to his WCW theme, reacting to Starks' armdrags, calling Starks out when he held the ropes on a sunset flip, and then playing into the finish, which maybe could have had Steamboat roll in just a little quicker, but ultimately he was moving swiftly and it worked for me. And then the post-match segment, paralleling what happened fifteen years ago, cemented the Starks heel turn in the most memorable way.

At his best, Starks carries himself like an Attitude Era star, like someone who could hold his own in a TV main event in 1999 right in the thick of it. There's no one else on AEW TV that works like that and what he needs to pull it off is to be able to turn the volume up as high as possible and wrestle with endless confidence. If he believes, the crowd believes and it feels like a big deal. He felt like he belonged in there with Punk on this night and because of that, the crowd bought into stakes that are dubious at best.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 7/17 - 7/23

AEW Collision 7/22/23

CM Punk/Darby Allin vs Ricky Starks/Christian

MD: This was very down to earth and very conventional, albeit with some unique partners and a certainly unique crowd. I came in to the first Collision thinking they needed to run some big angle from the start, and maybe, if they wanted to keep every single eye that fell upon the show, they did, but that's not what they went with and it's obviously not what they're doing. They're looking a slow, steady, consistent pro wrestling television and that means long, disciplined, measured TV matches of high quality like this. You can draw a throughline from the booking overall to the layout of this match. 

For one, all four wrestlers were completely engaged, completely committed, selling every emotional beat 100%. That might be the early bits with neither Starks nor Christian wanting to get it. It might be Starks on the apron watching Christian go for the diving headbutt and deciding to do the "look out to the crowd" visor pose of Christian's. It might be Punk making mental mistakes by chasing Starks after he committed slight transgressions at various points, or even Christian looking at Starks across the ring to get him to commit one of those transgressions. That meant for clever and elaborate transitions. It allowed for a strong double heat after a long and entertaining shine. Starks wrestled big. Darby made everything look better and more impactful. Christian's every movement was absolutely precise. Punk was a star, drawing heat and adulation and getting the fans all the more behind Darby.

This was comfort food at a high level. I try to watch things with an open mind, but if you've seen enough tag matches, especially ones that play within the line to try to make the most of the modality's conventions and norms, certain timings just feel right. They nailed it at almost every point here. Exactly when I felt some sort of inner need for Punk to loop in a hope spot, he did. Darby's offense is set up for big comebacks but that also makes him a great hot tag. He got in a few of his bombs and then immediately transitioned things back to heat by bouncing off of Luchasaurus. 

Everything was built up. Everything was paid off. Everything mattered. It was the complete opposite of the sort of matches we often get on Dynamite where babyfaces will break the rules of the match in the name of spots (where the spots are the ends and not the means) or where things break down a third the way through the match and then never come back. This was far more grounded, takes a different sort of patience and investment, but has a greater payoff. So long as you have crowds reacting to Punk and Punk reacting to crowds (and to a degree the emotional beats that FTR are good at setting up and laying down), there's a real chance that fans can be conditioned to expect something more than pure candy, imaginative visuals and set pieces, and emotional payoffs that are welcomed but not really earned from tag matches once again.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 7/3 - 7/16

AEW Collision 7/8/23

CM Punk vs Samoa Joe

MD: Summer vacation with the family has me behind here, so I'm going to hold off on Darby and Dustin matches, but let's try to quickly move through this one before moving on. I haven't rewatched the Punk/Joe series for years. They left more in the tank on this one. This was less Punk/Joe IV than a Punk/Joe oddity that'd slip through the cracks as a handheld a decade after the fact. When you think about the setting, you can't fault them: this was the semi-finals of an Owen Hart tournament, as something to help define a new TV show, one of the initial feuds to set the tone. Punk had gone out earlier in the show telling the fans to chant for Owen and in a key moment down the stretch, that's exactly what they did.

So what did we get if not the epic next chapter of a legendary feud? A very good TV tournament match with a tight, tight layout. There weren't any inversions (save for maybe the finish). This one was laser focused to fit the needs of the moment and because I'm sure now, a week plus later, everyone's written about the feel and the legacy and everything else, I want to briefly touch upon that layout.

They started with Punk ducking and moving, trying to get shots in when he could. He couldn't get too far with that strategy alone. Punk's character may be that of a striker, but Joe's a tank who just needs to get his hands on you to compact you like an accordion. Punk had a logical need to escalate and once he softened Joe up a bit he went for it. A bit doesn't cut it with Joe who walked away and then took over. From here, it was Joe asserting himself through the commercial break and Punk with escalating babyface comebacks. The crowd was split but that seemed more because they liked Joe than because they hated Punk, and this worked. A few strikes and a cutoff, a dodge on the floor leading to the clothesline off the apron and then a cutoff (that we miss) as Joe makes it into the ring first. All of it builds to Joe's first attempt at the Clutch and Punk hitting his biggest move of the match with a belly to back to shift things into an extended finishing stretch. The match opened up from there, with Punk repeatedly going for the GTS, setting up an expectation after three tries that he'd either hit it despite the weight difference or fall to the Clutch for his desperate stubbornness. Instead, he baited Joe in on the third attempt and rolled him forward for a banana peel win. Post-match, Joe got his heat back and reminded people that there's still an actual classic ahead of them. This, however, had to do its work while not overshadowing the tournament or the closing image of Ricky Starks to set up the final to come.

AEW Collision 7/15/23

CM Punk vs Ricky Starks

MD: I first caught this on the Sunday after and I had seen some negative or at least middling opinions on it first. That had lowered my expectations just a little coming in and with that in mind, this overachieved for me. This Punk run differs from the 2021-2022 one in how he's living in the moment. In this, I thought Starks was an almost perfect opponent. Something like Ospreay vs Omega is so carefully directed. Every shot, every angle, every spot, every move, every reaction feels drafted and redrafted and molded in plaster and colored in blood and sweat. This lived in the moment. It wasn't the spots you were watching for but the reactions on Punk and Starks' faces and how that shaped what they did or didn't do next.

When Punk did A, how did that impact Starks emotionally? When Starks did B, did Punk smile or frown or grimace? With Punk in 2023, it's impossible to predict exactly what the crowd will do at any moment so he's constantly adapting to the situation at hand. Some of that was in the struggle, like Punk's reaction to both of Starks' attempts at the rope walk. Some of it was in very muddy emotional beats. It was left to the viewer to decide whether Punk refused the favor of the ropes being held open because he was frustrated Starks got one up on him or because Starks had chosen to pose before doing it or as some broader mind game. It's left up to the viewer to wonder if that slight drove Starks' brutal forearms later or him crossing the line on the finish.

So much of this was based on the two wrestlers feeling each other out and just trying to figure out what their reality happened to be. Where did they fall on a spectrum? Who are they? Who do they want to be? What do they want this match to stand for, especially in the face of a torn crowd and the specter of the Hart family over them? And they came up with very different answers in the end. Despite part of the crowd being against him, despite all of his the insecurities that drive the man behind the wrestler, Punk the character is fully secure in who he is. He wanted to pay tribute to the Hart family that meant so much to him as a fan and a professional, to wrestle smart and provocative but clean. At times, after hitting a move or escaping one from Starks, you could see absolute elation come over his face. It was clear who he was, except for in those few moments where it wasn't clear at all. And Ricky? Well, we don't know, do we? 

That's the intrigue coming out of this match, and I think, how this match will ultimately be judged. That's the problem with star ratings. You wouldn't judge a chapter in a book, especially not before reading the rest. We have no idea where this is headed. Is it just the end of a tournament or is it the start of a story? Or a crossroads where two ships pass in the midst of very different journeys?

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/22 - 5/28 (Part 1?)

MD: I'm only two hours through ROH, but it was a good show so far, with nothing that I felt an absolute need to write about. There was also a Fletcher vs Cassidy match from Dynamite. I like Fletcher as the guy who contrasts HOOK for the next decade. There's a lot of upside there. He's still at a stage where he's just giving up the struggle to set up the next spot at times, but his reactions are good. I would have liked a bit more character-driven rationale (immaturity from Fletcher) for the kickouts towards the end. Too many bombs. I get that they're getting over Cassidy's resilience under impossible circumstance, but it was a bit much. I'll start the PPV here and maybe do the pillars match on Wednesday if I get around to it.

AEW Double or Nothing 2023

Blackjack Battle Royal for the International Championship

MD: You can tell a lot about someone's love of wrestling when it comes to how they feel about battle royals. There's nothing wrong with a person not liking them, complaining about it being too hard to see the action or too much hugging in the corner, etc., not enough "action," the notion that if you've seen one, you've seen them all. I wouldn't necessarily hold that against someone, but I'm always glad when someone appreciates the possibilities inherent. 

Before my time watching, a Battle Royal, like the big San Francisco one, but others as well, was a chance to see wrestlers you wouldn't normally see interacting with the local stars. They built it up as the most dangerous sort of match possible (despite that lack of action) where a punch could come from any direction and a freak injury could occur at any moment. That made a lot of sense during in age where kayfabe was protected and strikes and holds, not spots, were the glue that held wrestling together. 

When I started watching, towards the late 80s or early 90s, WWF Battle Royals were a way to break up the stultifying structure of the WWF feud system. The British Bulldog would feud for eight months with the Warlord and you'd rarely see him up against else during that time. A battle royal would let him interact with the Barbarian or Haku or Ted Dibiase and also brush shoulders with some of the other babyfaces, a brief save, a little nod, a quick team-up. That stuff was magic for a kid who wanted a more coherent universe in his wrestling and not just a series of isolated feuds. So maybe there's some level of comfort food for me in battle royals.

In AEW, it's not that guys don't cross streams and interact. Khan books random matches all the time. It's more a case that we can never have enough of it. There's only so much time and there are hierarchical needs that keep certain wrestlers away from one another. That was true a few weeks ago in the Darby vs Swerve match. It was true in Ricky Starks vs Jay White. For us to get matches like that every week, it makes continuous elevation of certain wrestlers tricky. In a Battle Royal, though? There's very little harm in getting knocked over the top. Moreover, here the wrestlers are encouraged to interact with one another and, more often than not, the spots are frequent and clever. 

I have no idea who agented this one, but they absolutely earned their keep. While there was brawling and guys hanging from the ropes and certain guys disappeared from the action (Butcher didn't get much shine for a change), it was one signature spot after the next, one interesting interaction after the next. The Lucha Bros, working with Bandido and Komander, interacting with Jay White, for instance, were standouts. The most memorable moment of the match might have been Bandido hefting up Nese for a delayed vertical suplex as Fenix and Penta fought off all comers. Brian Cage and especially Big Bill got plenty of shine. Bill's a guy who has been delivering and entertaining week in and week out and this felt like the first step in moving him to whatever might be next. I know people were high on the Swerve vs Cassidy finishing stretch but I find Swerve best as a heel and against someone with a little contrast, a few less twists and rolls, someone a bit more conventional. I worry that a straight up match between the two would frustrate me. Here though, as just a taste at the end of a very well put together Battle Royal, just a taste of it was more than enough. Cassidy was especially good at selling the cumulative damage of weeks on his back and hand, in the midst of a match where that wasn't the narrative centerpiece. It was just another detail in a twenty minute stretch of AEW that had a ton of excellent ones.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/5 - 12/11

AEW Dynamite 12/7

Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal

MD: Dustin is healthy again and was in this one. He's saying he'll retire in 2023, so we're going to cover every bit of his work as we can between now and then, if that actually happens (wrestlers are wrestlers and he's more of a wrestler than most). He does seem to be featured a bit right now and may even get an All Atlantic Title match, maybe? Hopefully? Dustin vs Cassidy would be a new match-up and I think they could do pretty interesting things with it for a one-off. We'll see.

This was, of course, an AEW Battle Royal which means some fun, pointed moments, and a lot of fun moments that just seem to happen. There's a lot to cover even if this wasn't the most eventful AEW Battle Royal I've seen. First, look at all of those managers and seconds! Stokely and Big Billy, The Blade and the Bunny, Penelope Ford, The Boys, Nana! And that's even with Sterling, Vickie, Jake, Arn, and a few others not there. Managers are a great, integral part of wrestling, and AEW is great for using them so thoroughly even if the contract stuff can be a bit much at times. Speaking of contract stuff, one of the biggest actual storybeats here was Matt Hardy, made by Ethan Page and Lee Moriarty to do their bidding and work as a pretty effective unit. Page lost the forest for the trees, of course, and enjoyed rubbing it in so much that he let himself get distracted, but while it was happening, there were fun bits like Matt jousting with both faces and heels, him leaving Moriarty high and dry for a high five, and Page cheering him on against the Butcher (while not helping) leading to a Hardy chant. Butcher was more of a monster in this than Cage, which says a lot about both of them. I loved Blade jumping up to the apron to celebrate with Butcher after he eliminated Dustin. Dustin got his big moment against kip with a picture perfect Destroyer, which was Kip's comeuppance for screwing with Cassidy. Kip had a nice little beat where Cassidy blocked a slam into the corner and he turned to look at him in a moment of exasperation or shock before Cassidy hammered him in. Speaking of Cassidy, one of my favorite little things in all of this was when Jungle Boy came out and Cassidy did his little version of the arm waving to great him before giving him a handshake as Dean saluted them both. It's little things like that which make the promotion feel more alive and active and more than just the sum of matches, promos and angles. Starks, to his credit, was able to take out Butcher (and like I said, Butcher being such a beast in this made that mean all the more), but they could have focused him a little more even than that. Same with Jungle Boy, who had just sort of been in it before he got bodied by Big Bill with the boot and the crazy chokeslam. What mattered in the end was that Starks won though, which laid the groundwork for the promos that would follow. Not the best AEW Battle Royal ever, and the tenor of the eliminations was a bit affected by the commercial break, but even a just ok one is always full of all of those great little moments that makes the tapestry all the more vivid.

Darby Allin vs Samoa Joe

MD: This was a hell of a thing. It's know how much of this was Darby being Darby and how much of it was Joe finding his groove after a time of inactivity, in the latter stages of his career, but if pressed (and I'm pressed every week around here; that's the point), I'd say it was about 50/50. Just a monster base against an insane bumper; not a flyer so much as just a lawn dart who throws himself into everything he does. Joe gave right at the get go, pushing Darby back but eating a dropkick out but then he did his trademark walk away and it was on from there. Joe just absolutely dismantled Darby on the outside, brutal stuff. He leaned on him during the commercial break, and then cut off the comeback attempt by setting up the amazing spinning bump off the post. All throughout, Joe emanated sadistic glee, grinning, scoffing, flexing to mock Darby after that bump, tossing Darby's in and back out of the ring to break the count, just a living, breathing monolithic monster that lives in the same world as you and I. Of course, Darby's exudes resilience like no other and he somehow was able to mount a believable comeback with Joe taking just enough of his stuff to really wow you and make you think that Darby might pull it out. It was all for naught with the great chokeout finish, one of those things that probably aren't as impressive as, let's say Joe catching Darby in a fireman's carry off a plancha like earlier in the match, but that looked great nonetheless. Post match, they go with one of those moments where you can't see the strings and have no idea how they pull it off without severe spinal damage as Joe dropped Darby right on the skateboard wheels. Don't try this at home, I guess? You wonder if they should have been trying it in the arena, but it sure had an effect. The crowd was great throughout, oohing and ahhing every bit of offense, and every bit of it was deserved. Even if this Joe run gives us nothing else, it sure as heck gave us this.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 2/23/21

What Worked

-Good opening squash. Moxley looked motivated and threw some hard crossfaces and a great back suplex, but he was also no doubt helped by Nemeth's ability to take punishment in cool ways. He really flung himself back hard on that suplex and took the double underhook DDT like a 90s jobber looking to sue the company.

-I liked the highspot beating Pillman Jr. took in his tag match, tough gig to play FIP while Cage and Starks suplex you and scrape their boots on your face. Pillman hit a great baseball slide dropkick, nearly hanging himself on the ropes but it looked wild. Starks had a couple of cool pinfalls where he really laid back with all his weight, and the Garrison hot tag had some fun moments (nice jungle kick, huge no hands plancha where Cage may have saved Garrison's life by standing his ground), but the beating Pillman took was the highlight. Dropkicks to the face, a screwdriver to finish things, rough night. The whole segment was fun, loved Darby's skateboard shot and Starks' bump over the top for it. 

-Hager's finishing lariat looked great, even though he made Brandon Cutler wobble around in place forever, like he was about to take a Fatality. If you're going to make someone do that, at least he made it look like a fatality. 

What Didn't Work

-I still can't get into the Sting return. I guess I'm not the audience for it, and that's fine, but it's funny to me that Sting took a hard powerbomb from Cage last week (not an unprofessional powerbomb, but a powerbomb harder than a 61 year old man who doesn't need the money should be taking), and Sting claimed he wanted REVENGE. And that revenge? His reverse DDT. I know we're technically supposed to view all finishers as equal, but Sting taking out Cage with a reverse DDT after Cage had been doing nothing but big slams, hard clotheslines, and dangerous drops, and now I have to buy that a reverse DDT might put him down? 

-Jake Hager decided to catch Cutler's tope con giro by flopping onto his stomach look a goof. 

-Craig T. Nelson is making that Young Sheldon money, I don't know why he needed to guest on Dynamite just so Jericho could smear some Smuckers on his head. 

-WHO among us thought Hangman Page/Isiah Kassidy should have gone as long as it did? Kassidy is a guy who seems like he's regressed as a worker since joining AEW. He was far more interesting when he was working as a Red trainee who wrestled like Red. Nobody wants to see him work unconvincing arm locks, not one person thought for one second that Page was going to be slowed down by Kassidy's long arm work section (he was not, didn't hesitate one bit when he hit a rolling elbow, though he did sell the arm after), and I'm not sure there was one thing Kassidy did that looked convincing. It's hard to work convincing control segments when you can't even connect on simple stuff like stomach kicks, while also looking like you're unsure how to apply holds to the limb you're supposed to be working over. Then we had to go through a long series of Kassidy kicking out of things that I did not buy him kick out of. The world did not ask for, nor need, dominant heel control Isiah Kassidy. This was enough. HOWEVER, if Kassidy actually stuck to the limb work and got good at it, I would really love a heel Amazing Red who also did Catch Point matwork. I would even take a bad version of that. And with some more work, Kassidy could be bad at this. 

-I could not get into Britt Baker/Nylas Rose. I don't think it was bad, but it felt like they were more going through the motions of having an epic confrontation without doing the actual match that felt like an epic confrontation. Nyla Rose always looks like she is stumbling or falling over while delivering almost every piece of offense, but rarely in a way that puts her opponent in danger. She's a monster, but doesn't do a lot of offense that makes her come off as a monster. I more like Baker's avoidance, and her mocking kicks to Nyla's face, and was more impressed with Nyla's suplex bumps than with any offense she did. Her best was probably the match ending sitout powerbombs, and even those looked like she was in danger of falling over while lifting. Very basic matches that are treated like manic wars always get under my skin. 

-I love a good wrestling style clash, but I don't think that good wrestling style clash will ever involve Lance Archer. I am getting sick of seeing this guy so often on TV. He moves like he has two town quads and can't bend down, and he constantly throws timing off. Fenix is a guy who at his best can fire off precision timing, and Archer just makes a lot of that look bad. Fenix was falling all over the place in painful ways, and you see him doing it to make Archer look good and just think "for this?" Fenix does some of his unhinged things like his always great tope con giro, and another where he fell face first on the entrance ramp from the top rope after Jake Roberts held his ankles too long. But Archer made him look like an idiot several times by mistiming when to take kicks. And who out there wanted to see Archer in a ladder match more than they'd want Fenix in a ladder match? Get this doofus away from the AEW guys I like. 

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 12/2/20

What Worked

-Jericho/Kazarian was a decent enough old guy fight, though I think a lot of the best stuff happened during picture in picture, sadly. Jericho is good at keeping a nice thread of hard short right hands and stiff right elbows running through matches like these, and I liked him peppering in stiff strikes while mostly just letting Kazarian either bump or do his 2006 offense. Kazarian takes a nice big bump into the guardrail, and he lands right on Jericho while doing a Spanish Fly and while I don't think that was intentional, I dug it even more as a nearfall. I liked the bit with MJF threatening to throw in the towel, strong asshole move from the guy infiltrating the stable. The match itself wasn't clean, some things didn't quite land like they were supposed to, but that typically adds to a match like this. 

-I am not excited for 60+ year old Sting in AEW ("long term contract"!?!), but I cannot put into words the joy I felt listening to Schiavone scream his head off in excitement. It's Stiiiiiiiiing!! 

What Didn't Work

-The further we get away from a time in wrestling where battle royals were either a) an important part of a card, or b) a common match on a card, the more we get into the territory of modern battle royals filled with people who don't know how to work a compelling battle royal. Two minutes into this battle royal and I counted 9 people lying on the mat, apron, or ringside, selling exhaustion. Nobody knows how to work interesting mini stories within a battle royal, they now only know how to do actual sequences they just work in normal matches. Dustin is the best battle royal worker in AEW, and he was not in this one, and you really need at least one battle royal engineer in there to make one work. Tully Blanchard was shown smiling on from the crowd, and you'd think a super compelling battle royal worker like Tully could have at least passed along some advice. Tully was the kind of guy who you'd see constantly stooging his way through, cheapshotting people, begging off when caught about to cheapshot someone. Here, one of the few people I saw trying something like that was Kip Sabian, who was comically blocking people off so Miro could beat them down. The rest just looked like guys lying around until it was their turn to bump. Sure, there were some nice elimination bumps (I liked Quen getting thrown back over on the silly string attempt), but there just wasn't any color or battle royal artistry happening here. Everyone needs to just go watch an All Japan battle royal (any one). There will be at least 3 or 4 easy things to steal. 

-Well, Baker/Hirsch was a bit of a mess, several little time standing still moments. Hirsch is billed as 4'11 but I'm not sure she's even 4'8. She makes Baker look like a giant, but that just made it worse when none of Baker's kneelifts came close to making contact with Hirsch's head. Baker has long legs, and I don't honestly know how kneelifts can miss by 6" when she barely had to lift her knee over her waist to make contact. And that was kind of the story of the match. I liked Leyla's chops on the apron, thought her suplex was cool (but think the set up of Baker needing to sell in the ropes while Hirsch slowly runs back and forth hitting offense is silly), but that submission trading was slow and ugly. Baker is a great personality and has improved in the ring, but that was not visible here. 

-I think I would have liked the Cody/Darby tag a lot more if it was just a Darby/Hobbs singles match. Darby selling and getting ragdolled by someone like Hobbs will always be entertaining, even though Hobbs doesn't quite land with the follow through that they act like he has on commentary. All of Darby's offense looked great, my favorite being the springboard back elbow on Starks before the commercial break, and that nasty coffin drop on Starks to end things. Actually, any time Darby and Starks interacted looked good. The problem was mostly Cody. Cody tagged in with a bad run of hot tag offense, whiffing on stomach kicks, barely making contact on a springboard dropkick, landing way light on a pescado; all of his offense looked like he was just running through a rehearsal with Starks and Hobbs, saving the full contact for the actual live show.  

-WHYYYYYY did that main even need to be 30 minutes? You ever watch one of those Jon Moxley matches where it looks like he's working at about 2/3 the speed he usually works, and throws most of his strikes so that they don't make contact? It's a thing, and that's how he spent most of this 30 minute match. Anything interesting about the match (namely Moxley getting his leg worked over after a dragon screw in the ropes and getting tossed knee first into the guardrail) get abandoned by the first commercial break, never to be mentioned again. Moxley worked this match the way a depressed man in a bathrobe makes breakfast, just dragging his feet throughout the entire thing. Kenny felt like he noticed how draggy Moxley was and decided to dump himself on his head a bunch to make up for it. It helped, honestly, but Moxley kept dragging things back down. At one point, selling exhaustion, they had one of the worst looking "on our knees throwing strikes" exchanges I've seen, the kind of thing that would stand out as bad on any local indy. Omega was making awful faces, all of the shots looked terrible, completely embarrassing stretch of match. It went so well, that not long after they decided to have an even stupider strike exchange by sitting in folding chairs and taking turns seeing who could throw a more mediocre punch. 2x speed only mildly saved things, but they couldn't save how awful Moxley's elbow strikes looked while escaping Omega's first 1WA attempt. You look at those downward elbow strikes and you tell me what they were supposed to look like. I have no idea how Moxley thought those looked, but nobody can tell me those even looked like someone miming a strike. Omega's knees down the stretch may have looked bad and landed somewhere around Moxley's tricep, but at least it looked like someone throwing a limb at their opponent. What an awful match. 

-I have no actual clue how to feel about the new relationship with Impact. Impact has gone on for so long and is so off my personal radar that it's not even an amusing punchline anymore. I used to love making fun of TNA, have fond memories of that night where they went head to head with Raw and had an impossible amount of things go wrong (the Homicide mousetrap cage, Jeff Hardy being mobbed by two teenage girls in the parking garage, Hogan driving to the building for an hour). I watched it with friends and we laughed about it for years. But at this point TNA has been around since before I could legally drink, and it's just this thing that somehow never goes away. It's managed to exist for 18 years and it may be around in 18 more, but I'm not sure how old I will have to be to want to revisit a bunch of old TNA. I will watch so many other eras of wrestling several times over before I get nostalgic for TNA. And yet here they still are, somehow getting another life preserver by being attached to a stronger product. Maybe I'll root for a partnership between two competitors to actually work! Maybe this will turn into something interesting. I'm not very interested in it at the moment, but because of the angle I found out that Impact was actually on AXS TV, and before this I just assumed they had existed on Twitch or Quibi or European Netflix for the past couple years. If my Tuesday evening is otherwise unfilled, maybe I will watch AEW invade Impact Wrestling. 

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 11/18/20

 What Worked

-I'm never excited to see Kip Sabian wrestling on TV, but I appreciate that AEW has significantly cut down on his televised ring time. There was one point earlier this year where Sabian had actually wrestled more TV matches than anyone else on the roster, and I am thankful that AEW at least realized how fucking stupid that was and now only put him on TV occasionally, rather than weekly. 

-I like the level of temper tantrum unprofessionalism that pours out of Thunder Rosa during her matches, always makes things way more interesting than the typical bad women's matches they put on. There are always a couple of things that land in meaner than normal areas and you just don't see that in other AEW women's matches. I liked her hitting a hard senton right across Serena Deeb's chest, Schiavone says "Her reputation is well earned," and I think he was talking about her match quality but that's not what I think of when I hear she has a reputation. I like her unprofessionalism the most when it actually applies to a good match, and this was a good match. There was messiness, which is baked in at this point, and the roll up counter stuff at the end felt completely unnecessary, but I liked a lot of this. Deeb's Tenryu powerbomb after Baker snuck in a swinging neckbreaker on the ramp was a great nearfall (bad move hanging in the crowd after the match, Britt), some shots to the jaw landed great, loved Deeb scraping her boot on Rosa's face and hitting a cool diving shoulder tackle off the ropes. 

What Didn't Work

-It's cool that AEW gives high profile TV time to a team like Top Flight, but I cannot imagine a new team working a style I'm any less interested in than Top Flight. It feels like every single indy I have access to has 1-2 teams exactly like Top Flight, who all do at least One Cool Athletic Thing and really wholly on taking moves to reverse moves and need opponents to be in very specific locations for the bulk of their offense to work. There were a couple cool moves, and I liked the speed Duante brought to cartwheels and the impressive height he got on leapfrogs. But I'm going to need to see more than someone hitting the same tope con hilo that literally two dozen guys on the AEW roster can also (and do!) hit. I hate that kind of offense where someone takes a move, but then that move gives them the power to reverse a move. Duante took a Finlay roll from Matt Jackson and then just turned it into a crucifix pin. I guess it looked cool, but if you can just eat offense and act like that gives you leverage to take a pin, I'm probably not going to understand it. But I'm sure many people are stoked to see more guys on TV who can go through the motions of hitting a dragon rana, and not care that neither leg actually hooked the shoulders on said rana. 

-Kip Sabian is a good opponent for Orange Cassidy to work his hands-in-pocket offense against, because Kip Sabian's strikes never look like they actually connect with anything anyway, so it makes sense that Cassidy is so easily able to avoid it. Sabian's wrestling is really confusing, because him throwing elbows, or kicks to the stomach don't look like it is connecting anyway, so when he misses a clothesline I can't always tell if it is just Cassidy avoiding him or if that was Sabian's finisher. I liked Cassidy blocking the drop toehold and stepping out of it, because it looked like a drop toehold that would not have taken anyone down. Appropriate sell. Sabian actually hits two clotheslines during picture in picture, and they actually do make the same amount of contact as the missed clothesline earlier. He also makes the decision to throw a dropkick at a turnbuckle, which I can only assume was his intention because Cassidy moved away from the turnbuckle well before Sabian threw the dropkick. Odd choice. He also made it so his head only connected 1 of 3 times while being hit into turnbuckles, so there's a strong chance that Kip Sabian is playing some weird game of wrestling telephone, where he is interpreting movements as explained to him by several different wrestlers but without ever actually seeing pro wrestling. 

-THAT was the promised contract signing!? I love a good contract signing, and a decent contract signing is something that even the worst era WWE can still make look good. But this was one dry dick of a contract signing. Moxley attacked backstage and rubbing his head while Omega gets all his Observer accomplishments listed? Fuck man just shove a table onto someone. 

-You put Eddie Kingston on commentary and then cut right to a commercial? I had to listen to Miro mumble his way through a brutally bad Kip Sabian match with a far shorter commercial break. That's just the lousiest time management. 

-PAC/Blade was not the comeback match I assume the wanted for PAC. They did that dumb kind of shit where they chase each other back and forth to opposing turnbuckles and kick each other in the head, lotta boots to the head that didn't actually look good. PAC hits a missile dropkick that Blade doesn't quite get into position for so it just looked like PAC took the hardest possible back bump off the top. Blade's powerslam looked good, the superplex looked good, but a lot of this match stunk. 

-Sadly, I got into a very long and very pointless argument during the main event, so missed a chunk of the middle. That stretch I missed could have been very awesome. The parts that I saw were not good, primarily due to Brian Cage working like a really terrible joshi wrestler. Gimme them shitty enziguiris and keep working like a 140 lb. woman, yeah! I thought several moments looked off and I still do not understand all of the praise I see for Ricky Starks. Is this the same kind of praise that people gave to MJF when he first became a thing a year or two ago? Or the way a bunch of people thought Damien Sandow was the fucking future 7 years ago? 

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 9/30/20

What Worked

-I really haven't seen a ton of Ricky Starks but was impressed with how he pinballed around for Darby and set up a bunch of his offense. They had cool callback stuff throughout, like Starks running a spear right into a Darby guillotine early but then hitting that spear late in the match as Darby was springing off the ropes, leading to a nice nearfall. Starks took some big offense from Darby, like a vertical suplex on the apron and stayed in to get killed by a Darby tope, but he also flipped hard onto his shoulders off the Code Red and got launched across the ring by a weird/cool monkey flip armbar thing (it was like Darby was giving him an airplane ride and then kicked him off while holding the arm). Starks paid attention to the damage his back took from that apron suplex and really put on a selfless bumping heel performance to make Allin look like the superstar he is. Great way to open up the show.

-We got what I think is easily the best FTR performance since showing up in AEW. Tons of people were excited for them to go to AEW where they could "finally work" and then they proceeded to have several matches that weren't anywhere near as good as the matches they were regularly putting out on Main Event. THIS felt like the FTR that people were excited to see. Cash hilariously got Daniels thrown out from ringside by faking a picture perfect trip from the floor, planting on his face and holding his mouth (so of course you knew Tully was going to grab someone's leg from the floor at some point and I loved it was the finish). FTR were working quick tags and cutting that damn ring off, going fast on exchanges, taking all of Scorpio Sky's pillow soft landing crossbodies and making them look impactful, taking silly cutters (Cash flew high over the ropes on Kazarian's derpy slingshot cutter) and making them look good, really building a hot match around a tag team I don't find very interesting. The nearfall stretch leading up to the finish was really strong, with Kazarian getting dropped by a gnarly dragon suplex (I like commentary pointing out that being sweaty was probably the only thing that allowed him to slip out of the pin in time) and a couple of tight Scorpio Sky roll ups. Tully grabs that leg for the finish, and this is the FTR I'd like to see more from.

-JR doesn't really have much of a place on a good commentary team anymore, but I get repeat amusement out of his glowing descriptions for picture-in-picture. This week he called it "restaurant quality" and that got a real laugh out of me.

-Old man Jericho is really great at crafting these 80/20-yet-competitive matches around guys of all skillsets. Kassidy brings little to the table for me (and here he whiffs on a tope con hilo onto several guys, barely clearing the ropes) and Jericho works a nice match around making it look like Kassidy was *this* close to putting him away. Jericho's short right hands are maybe my favorite punches in current wrestling, and he has a couple different variations on them. His mounted ones look strong but here I was especially in love with a couple of standing shots in the corner, short hooking rights to the cheek. I also really love his short kicks to the ribs, they always look like they sting. The finish was one of the very best Judas Effects ever, casually spinning through a Kassidy springboard to hit the killshot, then getting the hell out of dodge when a ringside brawl breaks out. Jericho as old gunslinger Misawa rules. And I really want the Jericho/Luther match.

-The Beach Break that Orange Cassidy polished off Ten with was nasty as hell, and I dug that tope en reversa off the top to the floor into Dark Order.

-Loved the Britt Baker return squash. That look over her shoulder into the hard cam before hitting a butterfly suplex is the stuff legends are made of, and she kept trying to pop Red Velvet's shoulders out of their socket with holds and more butterflies. Her kicking Velvet throat first into the middle and bottom ropes feels like something nasty that Greg Valentine or Ronnie Garvin would have done, and she somehow made it look as violent as I imagine they would have. Yes I am talking about Britt Baker and Greg Valentine in the same sentence and I feel minimal shame about it.

-I wasn't clamoring for a Butcher showcase main event, but him going after Moxley's knee was fun as hell. Butcher doesn't really have clean offense or stuff that looks particularly great, but he's a big guy who hurls his body weight at people. I don't need pretty moves, just leap at someone with a big mustache and wild hairline. Butcher had a big chokeslam and was tossing Mox around, dropped a knee on his head, choked him over the ropes so Kingston could talk shit, stops a Mox tope with a punch, and snaps Moxley's leg over the apron. I'm a sucker for limb-focused DDTs, so Butcher DDTing Moxley's leg put me over the top, and Butcher twisting Moxley's leg around his own to work on it ruled. This was really Moxley as Cena, but Moxley works well enough in the Cena formula. Nobody was ever thinking that Butcher was going to win, but I liked the path they took to Moxley's finish. Butcher really got stuck on that piledriver and DDT! Moxley limped his way through and never went on a big hulked up run, and his small comebacks were handled well, especially knowing he has that bulldog choke as his big silver bullet.


What Didn't Work

-Kazarian actually dropped a "You might be playing checkers, but we're playing chess!" If there was a post match promo I assume he would have talked about how tomorrow is another day, and they have to take this one match at a time, gotta move forward and forget about the past.

-Joke cutting smug heel Young Bucks are not something that interests me, but we'll see how it translates in the ring I guess? FTR just standing there like goofs after Matt superkicked Schiavone made them look so lame. "Oh, you're just gonna kick him? We're right here," they say, as they don't move and allow Matt Jackson to walk away. I don't think anyone came off well here, and Tony isn't someone who gets routinely attacked, and yet it came off like a non-event here.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 7/29/20

What Worked

-The visual of Stu Grayson's huge tope con hilo past the turnbuckle, hitting the cameraman on the way down (and running right at the cameraman) was awesome.

-Couldn't be much less interested in Zack Ryder as a new AEW recruit, but at least Ryder showed up ON THE GAS. I am more excited for hulked up juice god Ryder than Woo Woo Woo Ryder.

-This show needed Darby in the main event, because this was a real 2 hour drag if you were looking for good wrestling. This was a quick, under 10 minute sprint with a hot pace, totally unnecessary (but fun) weapons, and some classic Darby crash tests. The whole thing starts with Darby doing the Coffin Drop off the entrance tron, so this rules from go. Any match based around Darby dying is going to be cool, so crashing with a Coffin Drop, eating a powerbomb, a German, a nasty spill to the apron, it's all great. Starks and Cage had decent chemistry as a team, but I like Cage a ton more as "guy throwing two men around at once" than "guy going up easily for everyone's suplexes", and luckily we got a bit more of the former. Darby's late match comeback to save Moxley was great, there were a couple good nearfalls, and the finish was fantastic. You give me Darby smashing tacks into Ricky Starks' back by dropping in off the top rope and planting that deck on his back, and that's a finish I'll be into. Starks' sell was awesome, left leg stuck out straight and lifted off the ground while being pinned, shaking like he had spinal damage or like a man who just got his back tacked for the first time. Thank god for Darby tonight. That's a guy you get the ball to with seconds on the clock.


What Didn't Work

-Dang, that opening 10 men sucked, and it had zero excuse to suck. A 10 man given enough time should be the highest hit rate match out there. Any match with 6+ people where at least four of the participants are capable, should be a guaranteed good match. But this was just a sloppy, unfunny, poorly timed mess. People stood around awkwardly, waiting to take offense, missing offense, or just not doing anything. The dive train started well with a cool tope con hilo from Chuck Taylor (who appears to have lost some of his added quarantine weight), but then a long stint with Marko Stunt getting tossed back and forth between Hager and Luchasaurus while everyone just watched. There was a lot of "just watched" in this and it blew. Any time they tried to string a moves chain together it fell apart by the second move, everyone moving at a completely different pace than everyone else.

-I really love the idea of Cody vs. Top Indy Guys, and I have to accept that most of them are not going to touch Cody/Kingston...but I'd like to think that most of them will be better than Cody/Warhorse. I've never been much of a Warhorse guy, the whole thing comes off forced an unnatural, and let me tell you: if something comes off forced and unnatural on small scale indy shows, it is going to look downright bush on a big league presentation. Warhorse looked like a guy who won a sweepstakes, not a guy who earned his shot at the champ. Cody really busted his ass to make him look good, but it's a two way street. Warhorse throws a nice clothesline, and that's about it. Cody is good at taking lariats, and Warhorse had a big running one and a nice flat foot standing one that looked really impactful. Amusingly, JR called him "offensively minded" in a match where up to that point he had only thrown clotheslines and some stomps. Cody did a good job setting Warhorse to shine, Warhorse just didn't shine. His timing was a step earlier than Cody's, and it pulled back the curtain too much on a lot of his rehearsed pins or missed strikes. There were several times where he was already reversing the move he was set to reverse, while Cody had barely started the move. Grabbing a small package off a figure 4 attempt is a smart nearfall, but it looks bad when you're showing your reversal hand before Cody is even in position. Later, he committed to a missed double stomp off the top after seeing that Cody was 8 feet away from where he was stomping. It wasn't a blind leap, he watched Cody move, then leaped into a double stomp to the mat as if a person was there. There's debuting on national TV the way Eddie Kingston debuted, and there's debuting on national TV the way Warhorse did. This was Dancin' Homer debuting in Capital City. We've set each end of our Cody vs. The Indies bar.

-Man has Omega's stock fallen. The tag match was not a long match, but it felt like a long match. That's never good. Omega looks more and more like a broken man in tags like this, but this thing was mildly cursed beyond Omega. There were unfortunate hiccups that you can't really blame on anyone, yet take a match down anyway. Little things like the ref getting in the way of a Page clothesline, requiring Page to completely stop his momentum before continuing the spot as planned. Grayson doesn't always hit with his stuff, but I appreciate a lot of the stuff he goes for. The slingshot senton to the apron didn't fully connect, but it's something that is crazy enough that I want him to keep trying to make it look better. I like Uno's AEW work and dug him here, thought he took the snap dragon like a beast, loved Page wrecking Grayson with a lariat, but this never quite came together as a match.

-I was curious to see some more Diamante after her match last week, even though I was not into her match last week, but now I think I'm good for awhile. She did not look good throughout much of this. Every Shida singles match always has to have these really bad strike exchange sections, always looking like the most brutal slap play. For all I know those shots sting like hell, but I have yet to see a Shida vs. Opponent strike exchange that actually looked ready for prime time. Several of Diamante's chops hit hard, a couple things looked good, but I'm still waiting on an AEW singles match where the participants actually have chemistry.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 6/17/20

What Worked

-Give some decent time to Dustin, and the match is almost always going up here. I might be the lone QT fan out there, but I can't help it if QT is one of the better guys on the roster. Omega and Page looked off for large portions of this, and it was only the tag match structure that Dustin can do in his sleep that saved it. Omega kneed Dustin right in the face because he can't leapfrog a man like a normal human, he has to do a fruity gymnastics routine that messes up the timing for everyone. Dustin uses the flub and actually makes it mean something, continuing to sell taking a knee to the temple as he's taking Omega's rana and then popping up with one of his own. Or, the man got brained with an unexpected knee and he was knocking cobwebs loose. Page threw two of the weakest pescados I have ever seen, holding onto the rope until the last minute so that most of his body misses the mark and it lands with no oomph. He threw weak clotheslines too, which QT made look like great clotheslines. Page's sliding lariat did look good, so not a full loss. Marshall has such blatantly better strikes (and a great dropkick) that of course Jim Ross is going to cover that up by calling Page one of the best strikers in AEW. You knew the Dustin hot tag was going to be good, and really the whole match was worth it just for Dustin's snap powerslam, but I also liked how Marshall threw himself into Omega's snap dragon. Fun tag that relied on a proven formula and a great babyface team.

-I really loved how the set up the Anna Jay/Abadon match, giving Anna Jay the "Coming Up Next" graphic and the promo video out of the commercial break, and then flipping things into an Abadon showcase. I don't know Abadon, and horror movie gimmicks like this don't do a ton for me, not when we've seen Su Yung doing this very thing for several years now. But it's cool that random Colorado indy workers are on their radar and the twist of someone entirely unexpected being the actual star of the segment was a cool bit of presentation.

-Billy Gunn/MJF was a fun use of time and a good use of Gunn. I like how it was built around working over an old man's leg, Wardlow slamming it a bunch into the ringpost, MJF dropping knees on it and snapping it over with a quick Indian deathlock, coming down hard on it while the knee was draped over the ropes, and I like how Gunn's selling of the knee played into the finish. MJF really added a ton to this just by making sure his misses looked as devastating as all of the work Gunn was taking. MJF came down really hard on his tailbone after Gunn moved his leg off the ropes, and throwing himself hard chin first into the bottom buckle. That bottom buckle bump was something that Lanny Poffo used to do and I always loved it, and it looked neck snapping here.

-Liked Cody in his match, especially when Starks tossed him into the ropes and he made it look like he hit a brick wall. Dug his topes, dug his vertical suplex, didn't dig his opponent.

-Big top of the page love for Britt Baker's Kaitlin Olson level puke gagging in the dumpster, with a perfectly positioned banana peel on her head.

-Really liked Jericho and Guevara in the main event, really like their complementary feel. Sammy hit a real nice dropkick and followed it up with an awesome slow rise kip up, and moments later Jericho hit an awesome heavy dropkick (looked like a Bret Hart or Lawler dropkick). Jericho had a bunch of great strikes, with the peak being his killer short knees to the gut.


What Didn't Work

-Didn't see anything from Ricky Starks that I haven't seen from any of these other guys with the same build, haircut, and movement. He's probably maybe better than Austin Theory? His dance steps weren't as refined and he stutter stepped a couple times, had really performative bumps, and the only offense of his I enjoyed was when Cody would make something simple look good. You're bringing Malenko/Guerrero roll ups to my TV in 2020? Hard pass.

-Another week, another Sabian/Havoc match. Kip Sabian has more AEW matches in 2020 than anyone else. Who is behind that decision? Who thinks that anybody wants to see that? Who are the people who want to see that? I've somehow written up 23 Dynamites this year, and Sabian has been on 40% of them! He's just that one weird canned food item that everyone has in their cupboards and nobody remembers how it got there. We are supposed to move that can to the back of the cupboard and do a couple moves with it, not make a meal with plenty of leftovers out of it.

-JR thinks Hangman Page has arguably the best strikes in AEW, and that Chuck Taylor is "lanky". Has he seen Taylor's COVID bod or was he watching tape from a decade ago?

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