Welcome to the WrestleTalk News, I’m Pete Quinnell.
Last week on AEW Dynamite, it was Blood & Guts - a really well received show, with big moments
like Kota Ibushi’s debut in the company.
However, it’s now come out that there were going to be some major differences in and
after the eponymous match that didn’t make it to TV.
This comes from a report from Sports Illustrated, who make note that due to “a busy day”,
it was difficult to get everyone together who was involved in the Blood & Guts match
and plan everything out, which led to some pretty big knock-on effects.
The match reportedly ran long, as there was originally supposed to be 10 minutes of TV
time after the match’s conclusion.
This extra time was supposed to feature the handshake between BCC & The Elite, and Kenny
Omega’s promo, both of which still happened, but only after the show had gone off the air.
There was also reportedly a “big moment” lined up for Hangman Page that was cut from
the match due to time issues, but aside from the stuff that was supposed to be on TV that
wasn’t, “all of the other key points were hit”.
What this big moment was supposed to be for Hangman - who knows - but it does seem unfortunate
due to timing issues that it didn’t happen.
And also whether this was a little ‘oh that’s cool’ moment, or potentially something much
bigger, designed to kickstart a new chapter in a story or something, we don’t know.
But regardless, still unfortunate for him.
On yesterday’s WrestleTalk News episode, we spoke about a potential huge return being
lined up for SummerSlam, as Grayson Waller was reportedly pencilled in to have a segment
on the show with a WWE legend.
I speculated on that episode that it could be The Rock, considering he and Waller have
already traded barbs on Twitter, which could also lend some intrigue into the Tribal Combat
match in the main event.
And now Grayson Waller has invited The Rock to SummerSlam in an interview with Ariel Helwani,
saying: “[Rock] is out of work right now.
He’s unemployed, correct?
Actors are on strike.
Technically, he’s unemployed and needs some work…It’s an open invitation for the Grayson
Waller Efftect.
If he wants to come on the show.
His daughter is in a cult right now in NXT.
His family is in shambles on the main show.
He seems to be worried about Grayson Waller.
We have to do something about it.”
Of course Waller, ever the troll, could just be adding more fuel to the non-existent fire
and leaning into the rumours about this confrontation, or there could be some truth to it if they’ve
got Dwayne lined up to appear on the show, which is just over a week away.
As seems to be the theme of this week’s news, there’s injuries abound in WWE right
now.
With Kevin Owens & Liv Morgan both having reportedly genuine injuries, a fractured rib
and separated shoulder respectively, there’s another injury that happened prior that we
still don’t quite know the severity of yet, that being Bayley, who went down at a house
show clutching her knee.
She was seen leaving the show under her own power and without crutches, but now Bayley
posted to Instagram a photo of her and her cats, adorable, but she is wearing a leg brace
in the photo too.
This could just be precautionary of course, so we still don’t know the severity of it,
but fingers crossed it’s nothing too severe.
Now over to Oli for the Dynamite review.
I’m Oli Davis, and now it’s time for my review of AEW Dynamite… in about 5 misogynists.
I mean minutes.
I meant to say minutes.
As Excalibur opened the show running down the card, it really felt like a soft reset
after last week’s Blood and Guts craziness.
Emphasis on the soft, though, as I felt this show - while making an effort to revamp characters
and start new storylines - was very much a filler midcard episode, when you really should
be following up hot on last week’s momentum.
The Elite and Kota Ibushi didn’t feature once.
The opening match was Orange Cassidy defending his International Championship against AR
Fox - who got a Darby Allin-led video package beforehand, putting over Fox as one of Darby’s
mentors.
Because that’s Darby’s role now, to do video packages to get over his mates he wrestled
with in DEFY.
It was a great video package, the sort of thing AEW should be doing more of to get over
their roster of characters, but it got me thinking…
Darby is so turning heel, where he beats down all the people he’s helped because he thinks
they’re taking advantage of him.
I was wrong.
It was Fox who turned heel.
Cassidy vs Fox was predictably fantastic.
Cassidy continues to be one of the most versatile, yet gimmick restrained wrestlers working today
- somehow effortlessly blending his unique style with Fox’s super flippy offence.
It was a technical move that won it though, when Orange made the Mousetrap pin for a record
27 defences.
In the post-match show of respect, Fox snapped Cassidy’s glasses and decked him in the
face.
Darby came down to confront his friend, but nevermind that, Mox is now beating up Cassidy
in the ring.
Hopefully that isn’t just an ROH revenge bit, or because the BCC was facing the Best
Friends in the main event, as Moxley vs Cassidy would be an amazing styles clash.
Hook was shown on the subway, with his FTW belt disappearing in an atmospheric vignette.
Which led to Jungle Boy cutting an in-ring promo on ECW, because of Taz, which brought
out former ECW wrestler and current AEW producer Jerry Lynn - setting up another segment between
them next week.
If you’re into the idea of a young heel vs ECW Legends storying, I’m happy for you.
I’m not particularly enthused, because I watched WWE, then TNA, do this every two years
for over a decade when they’d run out of ideas and I just associate it with that now.
Gravity finally remembered PAC, and then fought him in a match - with the space walking luchador
making his Dynamite debut.
It’s great to see PAC wrestling on regular TV again, but this wasn’t the athletic showcase
I was expecting, nor did it have any BCC follow-up - which is confusing as they’d literally
already jumped Cassidy for less, and had directly called out PAC earlier in a backstage promo.
Next came the latest installment in the MJF and Adam Cole bromance storyline.
An angle so hot, it only comprised of playing two interviews from last Wednesday, and it
was by far the best thing on the show.
MJF cut an awesome, Rock-style, babyface fire promo on FTR ahead of their tag title match,
dropping the comedy for seriousness, while still doing an impression of Dax, and promising
to punch him so hard, he’ll have to spit out CM Punk’s jockstrap.
But like a multi-story car park, this feud has layers - and underneath Max’s speech
was his tension with Cole.
He interrupted Adam to start the interview off, and only said his name at the end.
It led Cole to apologise for the misunderstanding.
Max is genuinely becoming one of this best friends.
And then, in the most surprising development so far, MJF said, win, lose or draw with the
tag title match, he’s going to give Cole another shot at his title.
Before you could absorb that, though, jilted lover Roderick Strong ran in and accused Max
of planning to turn heel, again.
Cole shouted at Strong and sided with Max.
This was expertly performed and scripted, and it shows that right now in wrestling,
with several five star matches a month on free TV, what fans crave right now are character
conflict driven soap opera storylines.
FTR got an excellent retort promo, also recorded last week, where Dax said if Max says anything
about his wife or family, he’s going to tear his eyes out.
A wonderful bit of dramatic irony, as we already know MJF did mock Harwood’s family.
Swerve Strickland took on Darby in the match of the night, both men having wrestled so
many times before, they could pull off ridiculous sequences of athletic, thigh slapping counters.
Swerve’s leaping kick over the steps and jumping knee on Darby’s bullet dive were
phenomenal.
But Allin lost when he was attacked by a hooded man on the outside, which was revealed to
be the newest member of the Embassy - AR Fox.
The heels beat up Nick Wayne too, fully cementing the Defy-verse within AEW.
Don Callis continued his manipulative carny piece of s-word tactics with Jericho, booking
him with Takeshita against Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia next week - saying Chris himself
wanted to help them grow.
And later placing a wonderfully homoerotic painting of him and Jericho in the J.A.S.
locker room, prompting Daddy Magic, Cool Hand, Anna Jay and a very pregnant Tay Melo to walk
out on him.
And then came the bit everyone is talking about.
Britt Baker vs Taya Valkyrie.
Taya just turned heel on Saturday, so I was looking forward to her facing Britt here.
A revamped character vs one of the more protected stars in the company.
That could be some potential direction!
Instead what we got was an embarrassingly clunky match, perhaps because of Britt wrestling
through a back injury - something she reportedly had heat with Thunder Rosa for taking time
off for last year.
Baker seemed checked out, which made it worse when she made Taya - who needed a win here
- immediately tap once in the Lockjaw.
The camera then cut to someone in the crowd, their sign dead centre of the frame, which
read: “Book the women’s division better.”
Either that was a mistake, the start of some weird Vince Russo meta-storyline crap, or
AEW’s own production staff telling Tony Khan to stop treating the women’s division
with lipstick service.
This follows the heavily criticized token women’s match from last week’s show, where
Baker just squashed a local enhancement talent.
We’re 199 episodes into Dynamite.
Next week will see them host their 200th episode.
An incredible, praise-worthy milestone, but also one that comes with the weight of responsibility.
They’re not a start up promotion anymore, which means the fans expect more from them.
Nearly 200 episodes in, and we’re still having the same conversations about how poorly
AEW books its women’s division.
The main event saw the Best Friends vs the Blackpool Combat Club vs the Lucha Bros in
a three way tag.
It was a nice throwback to the days where the Best Friends and Lucha Bros were treated
consistently as upper midcarders, but that’s about two years ago now, meaning the main
event felt lacking of stakes or storyline context.
The action was good and chaotic, and the finish of Cassidy distracting Mox for Pentagon to
pick up the win over Trent was decent, but this felt too unfocused to be a good enough
cliffhanger for next week.
After putting on a top five of all time show for me last week, this week’s Dynamite is
in the bottom five I’ve ever rated, at 70%.
Do you like board games?
Then watch our WrestleTalk takeover of No Rolls Barred now!