The Business was Large in Bo$$$$ton for #AEWDynamite tonight, which I thought was a very good episode. I'm going to talk about it now.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:47 JST Blake Bouchard
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:37 JST Blake Bouchard
The main event, fittingly, was Riho vs. Willow. It was every bit the showcase match you needed it to be, with Willow, arguably the hottest pure babyface in the division, against Riho, the gatekeeper, the stalwart.
Smartly, they're already paying off the shared history from their NJPW Strong match where Mercedes was sidelined with injury. Putting Willow in the middle of the intrigue with the TBS title, Statlander and Stokely, and now Mercedes, is good business. Build around Willow, she's ready!
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:39 JST Blake Bouchard
HOOK and Jericho vs. Gates of Agony was a match that happened.
The story here seems to be that Jericho is worming his way into HOOK's good graces, but now those two have a match against each other, which I really hope leads to a Jericho heel turn. If we're going to pull the trigger on the Bullet Club Gold heel turn, then we should also be pulling the trigger on Jericho going heel. It's only fair!
By the way, did you know that Bishop Kaun is a shoot prince? I was screaming that all show.
Arnold Booker | WWE, AEW, TNA repeated this. -
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:40 JST Blake Bouchard
Jay White vs. Darby was pretty great. Jay is an excellent heel wrestler, and he got to act in full heel capacity here, as it should be.
This match also set up the post-match angle where the Bang Bang Scissor Gang abruptly blows up. I kind of expected this breakup to be a bit more of a slow burn, but they pulled the trigger on it out of the blue this week, which should make some people happy who weren't vibing with it.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:41 JST Blake Bouchard
Will Ospreay promo. Good! Hyping up his match against Bryan Danielson at Dynasty.
This was nothing too special, except that Will sets up some potential storytelling points for his match, specifically around the Tiger Driver '91, so look for that to become part of the story of the match come PPV time.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:42 JST Blake Bouchard
This was also the return match for El Bastardo, and to the surprise of nobody, he hasn't missed a step. PAC has always been one of the absolute heroes of AEW, from the first days of the company. His Iron Man match against Kenny Omega is still one of the best matches AEW has put on in their entire history, and that was Year 1.
Having "The Bastad" back at full capacity is low-key one of the most gratifying things happening in AEW right now.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:44 JST Blake Bouchard
Okada being a jerk to Alex Marvez is... Probably going to be the highlight of my entire week.
That of course leads into the trios match between one of the craziest groupings of pro wrestlers in... history? The Young Bucks and Okada, against Eddie Kingston, PAC, and Penta? This is the kind of shit that I tune into #AEW to see, and it delivered.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:45 JST Blake Bouchard
Speaking of needing workrate, it was time for Samoa Joe vs. Wardlow. This was a match that Wardlow earned by winning the Scramble at Revolution a couple weekends ago.
Treating War-dog as a constant threat to any championship is probably where he needs to be, but he is not World Championship quality yet. There are signs that he could get there if he sticks to it, but he needs to be getting reps somewhere aside from #AEW . In my opinion. Anyway, Joe wins clean.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Thursday, 14-Mar-2024 21:04:46 JST Blake Bouchard
Of course, the whole show was built around the debut of Mercedes Mone, and much like with CM Punk, they got it out of the way at the top of the show, since that's what everyone was waiting for anyway.
She cut a heartfelt promo about her journey, talked up her milestones, and all that was fine and good. But wrestling is what we're here to see, and that's what Mercedes brings to the table: A combination of star presence and workrate that the Women's division desperately needs.
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