by DBSoT » May 19, '22, 7:28 am
Dynamite review 5.18.22:
Joe vs Joker - First off, I am happy with John Morrison being the Joker. If they couldn't get Claudio/Cesaro for the spot then Morrison is a nice alternative. The match itself was good minus the botches 450. The post match stuff was familiar, but repetitive from previous weeks.
Hardy Boyz/Young Bucks backstage: good promo to set up a match at Double or Nothing
Hangman vs Takeshita (Punk on commentary) - Excellent match. Takeshita reminds me so much of Okada. You can also see he was trained by Sami Zayn and Kenny Omega. He incorporates a bunch of their moves. You also don't see many Japanese guys with his size anymore. Hangman continues to put on banger matches, even with his title booking being milquetoast. The post match stair down was fine, but I would have preferred some promos between Punk and Page.
Fuego/Dark Order promo: It set up a match with House of Black on Rampage, that is about it. Somebody please move Malakai up the damn card already. Also, Uno wrestling without Stu Grayson feels off.
Swerve/Lee vs Workhorsemen: Short and sweet, good finisher from Swerve and Lee. The post match promo with Team Taz and Jungle Express was good as well.
Kris Statlander/Red Velvet promo - This was meh. I love Statlander as a performer and her look is great, but she has no idea was character she wants to play and isn't good on the mic without some direction. Her pre-tapes are always better then her love interviews. Red Velvet is a stepping stone for Statlander to get to Jade and I am interested in that match. This segment did very little to get people invested in their tournament match. Jade is a star and she saved the end of this segment.
MJF/Wardlow belt whipping segment: For the 2nd week in a row, the MJF/Wardlow feud was done perfectly. This is my favorite story in wrestling. All the real life MJF contract stuff does add an element to it as well. Oh boy, I can't wait for Wardlow to destroy Spears next week.
Roppongi Vice wants all the gold - I liked this simple promo. Also, I am ok with Roppongi Vice being the ones to eventually take the ROH Tag Titles off FTR. Hopefully ROH can have a home soon.
Kyle O'Reilly vs Rey Fenix - Good AEW style match. Fenix is a next level luchadore and O'Reilly winning with an arm bar on Fenix's previously injured arm was a nice touch.
BCC and JAS promo - Jericho is great promo, but he never knows when he is going to long and it hurts these types of segments all the time. Regal is a comfortable talker, but you can tell he is still getting used to a lack of scripts. Moxley was great in this segment and the breakdown between Eddie and Danielson was a nice story touch.
Matt Sydal/Dante Martin promo - No one should give Sydal a mic. Dante was actually better here then I expected, but neither guy is ready to cut a live promo.
Britt Baker vs Joker - So here is my possibly controversial take. I think this whole match made the women's division look worst then it currently is. Maki is a character that only works if handled delicately. She is below average wrestler and very much a comedy gimmick. From a kayfabe perspective, why would she get a spot in a serious tournament over someone like Athena, Kiera Hogan, Marina Shafir, Anna Jay or Tay Conti? Even if you expand outside AEW, you could have paid for Mickie James as a one off appearance. Britt winning was the right decision a s her match vs Toni Storm should be good.
Serena Deeb promo - Ughhhhhh. I love Deeb as a wrestler, but good lord was this promo bad. The spirit of the promo had merit since Deeb did get breast implants during an era of divas and shaved her hair because she was asked. However, she completely missed the opportunity to talked about training some top women and getting overlooked because of it. That would have hit home more and would have connected her to Thunder Rosa, who also has developed many women's wrestlers with her Mission Pro Indy company. It also doesn't help that Deeb doesn't project her voice and it becomes very hard to hear.
Main event - Adam Cole vs Jeff Hardy:
They had to rush this match and it showed. They did play on Jeff's injury so it had some logic to it. The post match stuff was very basic and not very exciting. They should have had the Hangman/Takeshita match end the show and have the Punk/Page stair down be the last thing we see.
6.5/10