This episode had more than just the usual squash matches. AR Fox, Blake Christian, Anthony Henry and JD Drake are superb wrestlers being used as enhancement talent.
Ex sarcastically suggests he tries to interrupt Taz. Taz replies “Isn’t that what all great broadcasters do?”
According to Taz, Ex has shortened spines and careers, just like he’s doing with him.
Daivari racks AR Fox while the referee is distracted. Taz calls it “Yambag Full Monty Jones.”
Admonishes Ex for not calling Tony Nese’s Jumping Jacks.
Without the mask, Ex and Abadon have the same hair. (It used to be the same golden locks as Jeff Jarrett.)
Calls Blake Christian’s entrance music “Generic Rock Christian Jones.”
Parker Boudreaux knocks the water out of Jeeves K’s hands, splashing it all over the camera. Taz says that might be the highlight of his (Taz) career.
Taz and Ex debate whether the beginning of the Renegade Sisters’s entrance music is a modem screech or a router screech.
The Backstabber maneuver is named after the guys Taz shared a locker room with.
Ex plugs The Acclaimed’s “National Scissoring Day” on the upcoming Dynamite. Taz asks if it’s a real thing, adding he doesn’t keep up with cultural trends like Ex does.
The Trustbusters’ Slim J vs. Blake Christian
Somebody yells “Hey Daivari! You suck!”
Taz: I heard somebody in our live audience yell “You suck.” Wrestling fans, listen to me. This sport has been around a long time. You gotta get a little bit more creative with the insults. I mean just sayin’ the guy sucks is definitely not enough. I mean, you don’t have to. Please. I’ve been told, as a wrestler, I suck, many times. Ex calls Slim J “Daivari” by mistake, says he was thinking about Daivari’s massive fortune.
Ex: A more creative insult would be to tell Daivari, “You’re not that rich. You’re only a hundred-millionaire. You’re not a billionaire.”
Taz: Right. Now see, you’d be a great heckling fan. That’s perfect, Mr. Excalibur. Good job!
As always, thanks. The Taz/Excalibur dynamic makes Dark as enjoyable as Dynamite and Rampage. I also think credit should be given to Paul Wight this week on Elevation. His commentary made that show much more enjoyable than when he’s out.
I disagree with your opening statement somewhat (unless I’m reading you wrong). I think all of the people you named are placed right. They are top-level enhancement talent for a national program, but they are still below Sydal and Martin (as two examples) on the pecking order. But Sydal & Martin are still below even Private Party. Top Flight might have been placed at Private Party level or just above, but the other Martin can’t stay healthy.
I realize which stars are going to be higher on the pecking order, and I admit I can’t exactly see The Workhorsemen as tag team champs. I can still admire those guys, and watching them job is my cross to bear. I’d be satisfied with the old “Win the first match then lose the next two” formula just so they don’t look like total chumps.
I’ll always have a bias for the former LU workers like AR Fox, Killshot (Swerve Strickland), Luchasaurus, Angelico, Pentagón, Ray Fenix, etc. They helped make wrestling more story than show, and as far as I’m concerned, no wrestling fed has been on that level since.
Killshot has found his groove, as I didn’t think much of his LU character work. Luchasaurus hasn’t grown at all, neither has Angelico. Luchasaurus is big and athletic, but his in-ring work is middle of the road (not a bad place for someone his size) and he is given no character work. There is nothing to connect with him. Angelico seems like he might have a personality, but neither LU nor AEW gave him much of a chance to show it. Pentagon peaked character-wise in LU, but he’s significantly better shape now and it shows in his ring work. He was a big fish in a small pond in LU, but he’s been left to flounder (see what I did there) in AEW. Fenix is the same. They need stories to connect with the greater US fan base, and TK isn’t giving them any. And not just them - TK is dropping the ball on 80-90% of the talent, including the entirety of the women’s division.
Welp, Luigi Primo has been milkshake ducked - turns out he’s an antivaxer who fired a bunch of people from the indie promotion he runs in order to protect a sexual predator they were refusing to work with.
I guess I’m going to have to award Jim Cornette the coveted Stopped Clock Award for the second time (first time was for Joey Ryan).
Andrade was reportedly sent home from Dynamite after legitimately attacking Sammy Guevara backstage.
He can go join CM Punk in the unemployment line, IMO. This isn’t the NWA in the '70s and anyone who thinks this is an appropriate way to settle personal scores has no place in today’s wrestling business.
AEW is losing control of their promotion. They have too many damn wrestlers. And too many damn titles. If HHH takes back a bunch of them and a bunch get fired then that will be a first good step. Whether it’s a step on the way to improvement or collapse remains to be seen.
RUMOR is Andrade was trying to get fired. But it is backfiring as TK likely won’t fire him, just bench him. Don’t know how this might affect booking other promotions, but it will keep him out of WWE for the length of his contract.
And (if rumors are true), it did happen in WWE, sometimes on TV. Kurt Angle/Daniel Puder/Chris Benoit played out on TV. If Jericho is to be believed, he had a few altercations. JBL/Blue Meanie. Hell, most recently Lesnar/Strowman and Flair/Jax all happened on camera. And wasn’t it ‘Nailz’ who attacked McMahon? WWE just does a better job of forcing their talent to be adults on social media.
Bray Wyatt’s back! Hopefully Hunter will be able to book him better than the endless cycle of “attack a random babyface for no reason, cut a bunch of promos that sound spooky but don’t mean anything, lose three straight PPVs in a row, then start over with a new babyface” cycle that was the only idea Vince ever had for the man.
Extreme Rules was pretty damn good this year. Unlike last year where they forgot to book any stipulation matches, or the year before where Seth Rollins tore Rey Mysterio’s eye out of his goddamn head and he was completely fine like two weeks later, every match on the card had a stipulation that they stuck with and was executed pretty damn well. Sheamus is hotter right now than he’s ever been in his career. Judgment Day had some of the best heel work I’ve seen in some time in the finish of the Balor/Edge match, and I liked Finn’s Cenobite-esque mask that he wore during his entrance. The Fight Pit I felt would have been better as a worked MMA match than the hybrid not-quite-Hell-in-a-Cell thing it was, but it was pretty good anyway, and Cormier was played straight as an impartial referee rather than somehow taking sides like guest refs almost always do. Even the backstage vignettes with Miz and Gritty were pretty entertaining.
The quality of WWE’s PPVs has improved markedly since Hunter took over - it feels a lot more like the 2014-2016 era Takeovers than the stuff of the last few years, and it’s extremely refreshing to hear Maggle and Corey just call the match instead of constantly bickering with each other because Vince spent 30 years obsessively trying to recreate the Gorilla/Brain dynamic.
Here’s hoping they don’t shit the bed and put the world title on Logan Paul next month.
Damn, the Good Brothers were only gone from Impact for a couple of weeks. Either Impact doesn’t do no-compete clauses, or the GBs are shrewd negotiators.
Even in WWE, once the contract has ended, one can wrestle anywhere else the next day. It’s only when released prior to the end of a contract that WWE can enforce a no-compete (which is basically telling the talent that your contract will be voided in 90 days - horrible that it only works one way).
Today, Ex sneaks in some ribs to Taz about the Mets blowing the Wild Card playoffs.
Taz tells Ultimate Warrior knockoff Alec Odin “Grip the top rope! Shake the top rope!”
Ex and Taz debate whether the fans are chanting “Hayter” or “Hate her.”
When Action Andretti is introduced, Taz says “There’s only one Action: Action Bronson!”–the composer of Hook’s entrance music
Taz compares Dalton Castle to a pelican, er, a peacock.
Great timing when Ex explains the fans are chanting “Dalton Castle,” not “You’re an …” and Taz raspberries to finish the sentence.
Calls Matt Sydal a “peace-loving Yoga Jones, but a really mean guy.”
Brandon Cutler vs. Kip Sabian
Ex: Since Kip’s return to AEW back at All Out, he seemed a little fractured, a screw loose, some might say.
Taz: Well, if you kept a box on your head for over a year and no one cared, you’d be the same way!
Ex: I kept a mask on my head for years and years and nobody cares.
…
Ex: There’s a lot more smiling going on in this match than I would expect, Taz.
Taz: Sarcastic smiling. That’s the difference, my friend. There’s smiling of joy and love, then there’s sarcastic smiling.
Ex: Kind of like when you smile at me.
Not being bound by a non-compete following a contract end is not bad. And 90 days notice of termination is pretty good also. There are worse deals, and have been in wrestling.
I thought he was TNT champion at some point, but didn’t they say this was his first AEW championship?
That said, too damn many belts, TK. I love Shida about 90% as much as I love Asuka, but don’t have her come out there with her two belts* only to have the TV announcers diminish them because she is teaming with the “interim” champion. Two “World” champions, a TV champion, a TNT champion (who rarely defends), an All-Atlantic champion, a ‘Pure’ champion…am I missing any men’s singles titles? At least make some sense of their hierarchy, or do something to differentiate them (only Pure does this). AEW is the mothership, so let’s assume that Moxley’s title is the top one. Is Wardlow or Jericho number 2 (though we all know Logan Paul is a big number 2)?
This is why I like Reigns as a unified champion. The problem is that VKM never worked to elevate the Intercontinental and US belts to the point that they were “brand” champions. It appears HHH is attempting to do so, but a lot of damage was done to those titles over the years and it’s going to be a process. I do think, given the depth of the roster, the tag belts can be split back up, as HHH doesn’t hate tag wrestling the way VKM did. You can highlight more people and have more feuds that way, and tag belts are a good way to groom and test potential future singles champions.
*I know one is a tag belt, so that’s a little apples-to-oranges comparison. But only a little.