Coming up, WWE are still in hot water over some promos from Raw, Beth Phoenix could be
returning to the main roster and there’s a Vince McMahon Netflix Series in the works,
plus Oli will be reviewing AEW Dynamite. So stick around, grab a cup of coffee, put
your feet up and hit that subscribe button so we can do this again sometime. It's been
nice hanging out for these 30 odd seconds so far.
If you cast your mind back to Monday, WWE got itself in a spot of bother after two promos
on Raw used the real life mass firings in order to generate some heat in pretend feuds.
Edge in a promo against the Miz referenced the recent release of Miz’s tag team partner
John Morrison, essentially blaming the Miz’s aspirations in reality TV for not helping
look after John and that leading to him being fired.
Meanwhile, Liv Morgan told Becky Lynch that her big fat paycheck was the reason her friends
were gone: referencing the rest of the Riott Squad, Sarah Logan who was let go in April
last year and Ruby Riott who was released in June… and is doing just fine thank you
very much. Following the segment it was revealed that
talent backstage along with a healthy dose of fans thought the promos were in bad taste
and PWInsider noted that the line likely came from Vince McMahon and the creative team rather
than from Liv herself. WWE seems to have cottoned on to the furore
surrounding the promo though and removed the line from the YouTube highlight reel of the
episode, even though it featured in the initial upload.
WWE have been doing this sort of thing recently when their content rubs a significant portion
of the fanbase the wrong way - like when NXT star Joe Gacey did his ‘woke, sheeple, snowflake’
promo. And WWE’s releases just keep coming back
to bite them as Mattel has just announced the next in its WWE Elite 92 action figure
series and it includes four released stars. The Fiend, Ric flair, Adam Cole and Scarlett
Bordeaux are all getting new action figures in the set and have all been released from
WWE between July this year and now. When you’ve released over 80 performers in one year this
was bound to happen. Despite being shock released in November Scarlett
took it well saying: “3 action figures in less than 2 years with no matches isn’t
too shabby.” Maybe Mattel misheard the entrance song as
“fall and play”. That’s the best I got at 8am.
In other news PWInsider are reporting that there is currently talk of Beth Phoenix becoming
involved in the storyline between Edge and the Miz - Miz and his wife Maryse interrupted
Edge on Raw and her appearance reportedly won’t be a one off.
This is screaming mixed tag to me. But no word on the actual plans for her involvement
in the storyline have surfaced thus far. Last bit of news is that Stephanie McMahon
revealed that the multi-part documentary about her father Vince McMahon is set to air on
Netflix in 2022. She told YouTube channel Adam’s Apple: “The
timing is still TBD. I am equal parts excited and really nervous. I don’t know what it’s
going to say, but it’s going to capture his life and his story, which so richly deserves
to be told.” The series is being produced by WWE Studios
and Bill Simmons and was announced way back in October 2020. It’s going to be like Tiger
King, if Joe Exotic fired the tigers and wrestled the tigers and made their lives miserable.
So like Tiger King Up next is Oli’s review of AEW Dynamite
after this word from our sponsors. Before we get on with the rest of the episode,
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The Ridge. Now it’s time for my review of AEW Dynamite…
in about 5 minutes. Excalibur opened the show, saying they’re
all thinking of their broadcast colleague JR right now, who’s currently undergoing
cancer treatment. Isn’t it nice to work for a company that wishes you well when you’re
battling an illness, rather than making fun of you on-air?
The first match saw Bryan Danielson picking off another member of the Dark Order in their
hometown, making Alan Angels tap in a knee bar while flexing those vegetarian biceps.
They’re actually stuffed with mushrooms. It was announced that Danielson would be taking
on Hangman Page for the AEW Championship in just two weeks at Winter is Coming, so Bryan
said he’ll continue his warm up in Long Island next week, where he can beat the hometown
boy there, John Silver. As Page wasn’t allowed to touch Danielson,
Silver chased off Bryan. This was yet another really solid instalment of their feud, and
I can’t wait for Silver vs Danielson in a Meat vs Veg match next week.
We finally found out where Miro’s been since Full Gear. He’s been stuck in Janice’s
mind in the Good Place. CM Punk took on Lee Moriarty next, where,
just like the QT Marshall match, Punk gave Moriarty far more than his position on the
card would usually dictate. In fact, Moriarty took about 80% of the offence before Punk
won with a half veteran, half lucky GTS. This all plays into the larger story that
every match Punk has is also a battle against his own ring rust - a neat kayfabe explanation
for him wanting to help elevate younger talent. But up until MJF, it hasn’t really been
explicitly called out. So MJF joined commentary to remind us over and over again:
PG Punk has lost it, his wrestling is sad, he should be winning matches like this in
5 seconds, I think he’s been drinking, do you know the CM actually stands for coke and
meth. MJF continued in a promo afterwards, saying
the only thing Punk is good at these days is trying to get into Britt Baker’s bedroom.
Hey, too far, man. Tony Schiavone is right there. And then he threatened to kill Punk’s
dog - prompting Wardlow to step between them. MJF didn’t just talk about Punk, though,
he was also excited about becoming the three time winner of the Diamond Battle Royale in
his New York home next week. If there was ever a time to lose it, Punk costing him the
match would play perfectly into MJF’s own insecurities of slipping out of the four pillars.
The Danielson vs Page and MJF vs Punk feuds are the best things in the company right now.
But after they both opened the show with a solid structure, the rest of this Dynamite
felt weirdly paced. Britt Baker said her Rebel and Jamie Hayter
are totally fine in their Riho feud. They’re not totally fine, Hayter didn’t do the D.A.D.
thing. Adam Cole made his full entrance to the ring
to then walk back up to the commentary desk, for Orange Cassidy to come out to get beaten
up by Cole and the Young Bucks. So was there originally meant to be a match? What was happening
here? Wardlow squashed AC Adams with four consecutive
powerbombs. Shawn Spears then seemingly orgasmed hitting Adams with a chair while Wardlow looked
annoyed. Their character work is fantastic right now, I wish it got more time.
Sting made his wrestling return to WCW’s old homebase of Atlanta, tagging with Darby
Allin to take on Billy and Colton Gunn. It appears the whole Gunn Club feud was just
to build a fun Sting match for Atlanta, kind of like the 2.0 match back in August, with
Sting playing the hits and getting the win over the previously undefeated Gunn Club.
Speaking of 2.0, they jumped Chris Jericho backstage after their Rampage interaction
- which Taz, who had now joined commentary, said would take Chris off announcing this
Friday, when he was then interrupted by Lio Rush.
This did make sense. Lio came out to confront Team Taz for taking Dante Martin away from
him. But the set up felt confused, and it took a while for Lio to get the crowd into
his promo. Rush said he’s going to go down fighting, but Dante just smirked back.
Kris Statlander took on Ruby Soho in the next TBS tournament match, which meant Taz got
to sing Ruby’s entrance music. They told the story of both wrestlers being
equally matched, and on another day the result could’ve gone the other way. But it was
Ruby who just eked out the victory with a quick pin.
This was a decent match, but I felt like it was just getting really good following Statlander’s
kickout moments before the finish. I hope they’re saving the proper time for the semis
- which will see Ruby take on Nyle Rose, who briefly attacked her in the post-match.
And for the main event, it’s time to step into… The Cody Zone
In true Cody madness, everything was going relatively normally bizarre. It was an Atlanta
streetfight, so of course Cody was wearing his full Homelander wrestling gear, Arn Anderson
fell off the stage, and T-Pain was in the crowd to hug Rhodes. Because that’ll get
Cody cheered, celebrity endorsements. But then my feed went to bars and tone for
about 7 minutes - I still have no idea what happens in that period because I need to write
this review - and it came back with Cody bleeding everywhere, Jose the Assistant is suddenly
both topless and buff, Cody is holding a golden shovel in his latest Triple H reference, and
Brandi Rhodes is setting a table on fire. It made for a spectacular finish, as Cody
gave Andrade a top rope reverse suplex through the flaming table, a bump that Cody’s back
took 100% of, for Rhodes to then pin Andrade while still on fire. Cody’s back started
to peel immediately after. You can say a lot of things about Cody, and
I don’t see the crowd not booing him in the future, but he always really delivers
on his big matches, and is a lot of fun. What did you think of Dynamite? Let me know
in the comments. 73% of you went for Oooooh, ooooh, Cody's on Fire in our poll on a pole
match on the community tab. The opening 45 minutes with Hangman, Danielson,
Punk and MJF built nicely, and the main event was typically barmy for a Cody match, but
everything in between felt a bit house show like. Which is mad to say for a bit that included
a Sting match. AEW really is a victim of their own success, because by their own standards,
this week’s Dynamite is a 3 out of 5.