Jan 25, 2023 AEW Dynamite Discussion Thread: Mark Briscoe/Lethal, Darby/Buddy, Danielson/Cage, Toni/Ruby, JAS/Starks & Andretti

Top bins said:

There was no Cipperley so the show automatically gets a high grade. .

MJF as much as I love the guy, the storyline of jumping through hoops is boring. Danielson is having 15 minute matches, where the outcome is obvious. So it kills the match.

I'm sick to death of Darby Allin and Jungle boy they ain't pillars. Darby in particular annoys me.

When I think MJF said the pillars are Darby, Jungle boy and Sammy. Three out of the four I'm sick off.

Pillars should be MJF, Ricky Starks, Swerve and Powerhouse Hobbs.

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Yknow, every time you post about Big Jim Cipperly an Angel (Ortiz) orders wings.

The pillar silliness is a
victim of both diminishing returns and overexposure. For something that likely originated in New Japan and All Japan it sure is a popular subject here. All Japan had it’s four pillars + a fifth pillar in Jun Akiyama. New Japan didn’t have pillars in their vocabulary. They called their foundational talent the Three Musketeers. The first consisted of Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono and everyone’s favourite oatmeal kneed, bald headed, spitter Keiji Muto/Great Muta.

They anointed new musketeers in the late 2000s back when the company was a total mess. The new trio was Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata.

Three of the AEW pillars have been here since opening night. Starks came a little later. They have been up and coming for almost four years at this point.

Suggestions for new pillars would be Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, Action Andretti and either Lee Moriarty or Dante Martin.

Whoever makes up the group it should definitely have Jade Cargill or maybe even Hook. Each AEW version started out quite unproven.

Hopefully the pillar problem is something left for Pro Wrestling Tees to market young stars in AEW. Any new edition of the group really won’t be pillars at this point in AEW’s lineage. The current pillars probably don’t care too much beyond how much money, ring time and screentime everyone receives in service to the twisted reality that is tucked deep in TK’s mind.

BestInTheWorld312 said:

Man MJF as champ has just been the same ol song and dance so far with being very underwhelming. Nothing about this feud with him and Bryan has entertained me from the matches Bryan has had and MJF promos are even boring....Unfortunate

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I sadly agree. The idea of MJF putting Bryan Danielson against a bunch of random opponents probably looked good on paper because a.) analytics likely show fans tune in to see Bryan Danielson regardless of circumstances and b.) it satiates Bryan's desire to work with mid and undercard wrestlers. The issue and reality is that it's hard for viewers to feel invested when the outcomes are incredibly predictable. Did anyone really think Danielson would lose to any of the wrestlers during this road to face MJF? And TK recently used his fan goodwill token by running The Elite against Death Triangle seven times. Did fans really think the series wouldn't go to "Game 7" at one of AEW's biggest non-PPV shows in Los Angeles?

On the bright side, MJF is course correcting on his recent promos; the first few ones after winning the champion were somewhat underwhelming (perhaps intentionally to help his opponents like Ricky Starks). We're now starting to see Psycho MJF return, so hopefully things pick up heading into Revolution in just over five weeks.

From a production standpoint, this episode:

• Used fewer camera cuts, longer lasting shots that allowed a move's impact to hit without cutting away. There were also many more extreme telephoto close-ups used. All of which made the episode feel more cinematic.
• Something seemed off with Excalibur almost as if he had in-ear audio or video screen issues. This was really noticeable with him trying to announce the card lineup early on in the episode. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman really outshined Excalibur during the main event.
• I was initially put off with AEW's new color scheme. I get it - TK wanted to use blue, white, and red because other major sports franchises do, too. But it dawned on me that the blues used remind me of NCAA March Madness colors. Here is an NCAA College BB screen cap that I found from Google. Here is a screen cap from last week's Dynamite in Danielson & Bandido's match.
• The crowd lighting was the best it's been since the refresh and it reminded me of pre-pandemic Dynamites.