Alvarez is saying that the ankle injury is to cover for Hangman potentially missing the PPV match due to a personal issue. At the time they don’t know if Hangman is going to be able to work the show, so they’re keeping that in the back pocket in case they need it.
Notices by Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world), page 2
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 10:56:19 JST Blake Bouchard
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 10:56:18 JST Blake Bouchard
Oh tee-hee, I didn't say anything about Wardlow's promo. It was... fine?
I look at Wardlow in much the same way that I look at the WWE: He's not there for me, he's there for someone else. That's fine! But if his character is going to be "I deserve a bigger push!" that puts him squarely in heel territory for me, which is good if that's what they're going for... IF.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:59 JST Blake Bouchard
The promos and segments on the show did what they needed to do, and were universally pretty good. This show was relatively light on wrestling for a Dynamite, but the segments did not overstay their welcome which is exactly what I want.
The Daniel Garcia/Christian Cage segment was exactly what you want it to be. A shock revelation that Christian Cage has +2 to hit Daniel Garcia due to the “Dead Father” debuff, Garcia getting to do a fiery babyface promo, all to hype a promising TNT title match.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:59 JST Blake Bouchard
Yesterday’s #AEWDynamite was one of the ones that I used to refer to as a “Snow Day” back in the pandemic, when seemingly all of the plans got thrown into the air, and the show ends up being a bit of a rollercoaster.
Sometimes they stuck the landing, not always, but the show usually ended up being fun regardless. This one was no different, and while there was one major low, #AEW continued to show that even a middle-of-the-road Dynamite is still worthy of your time.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:57 JST Blake Bouchard
FTR vs. Mox/Claudio set the tone for the entire show with some VERY chaotic opening minutes. This was the absolute definition of a match called on-the-fly and you could tell.
But then you remember that the guys in the match are four of the absolute very best pro wrestlers walking God’s green earth, and so even if the match is a bit rambunctious and messy, it works with the “Shoot” narrative that these teams legitimately don’t like each other and just want to punch each others’ lights out.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:56 JST Blake Bouchard
Orange vs. Mike Bennett definitely felt a bit perfunctory, but this was one of the matches that seemingly had to get re-booked due to Trent Beretta being unavailable.
Again, these two guys are good at what they do, so they had a decent enough, if a bit by-the-numbers, wrestling match. My highlight was the straight arm punch directly into Orange’s, uh, oranges.
The Jake Hager save was a bit strange, even if he is a hometown guy. But again, this was a bit of a weird show.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:55 JST Blake Bouchard
Toni vs. Local Talent was exactly what you thought it would be. Toni and Deonna had back-to-back matches, so the obvious story here is that they’re having a competitive “Jobber cook-off” where they could see who destroyed their jobber the best.
The bit where they used each others’ signature submission holds to finish off their opponents was nice, and the half-colour, half-B&W shot of Toni and Deonna staring at each other on their respective halves of the screen was legitimately quite good. BUT.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:54 JST Blake Bouchard
Then we get to Deonna vs. Madison Rayne, and this is where the lack of depth in AEW’s women’s division sticks out like a sore thumb.
Even if the match was essentially a tune-up match to give Deonna momentum going into Revolution, it ended up being painfully slow, and at times awkward. Capped off by the “Intuit Move of the Night” where Madison sells a flatliner like a DDT, and inadvertently spikes herself.
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Blake Bouchard (blakeb@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 06:18:52 JST Blake Bouchard
The match did serve to show how important workers like Deonna are, though. For every charismatic-but-inexperienced worker like Britt Baker, Thunder Rosa, or Jade Cargill, you need a solid worker in the midcard with indie or joshi experience to at least try to make them look good. A Ruby Soho, Taya Valkyrie, Mercedes Martinez, someone like that.
It seems likely that that’s where Deonna will slot in after Revolution, when Mercedes-mania starts running wild.