AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (9/6): Taz’s brilliant deadpan commentary, Samoa Joe at his best, Toni’s shoe throwing, Tournament set-up

It’s a new day, yes it is… oh wait. Disregard that please. It’s a new “era” for AEW coming off of a fantastic All-Out PPV last Sunday. There’s hope now they can move forward in putting together fun shows with great storylines and the usual amazing in-ring action without petty immaturity backstage. The firing of C.M. Punk will certainly not fix things overnight, but hopefully some new leaders will emerge and the company will be better for it. The goal for this week’s Dynamite should be to set up some new feuds and put a spin on some existing ones as the company heads into the fall and their next three big events.

HITS

ORANGE CASSIDY OPENS THE SHOW

It’s not Dynamite if Excalibur welcomes you to Wednesday night and what it means and you don’t hear Jane play and Orange Cassidy come out. This time I was a little concerned they’d try to make him into something he’s not by giving him the mic and letting him ramble on. Thank goodness, they played it perfectly by giving him three lines and his “non-catchphrase” catchphrase (and new shirt!)

“SOMETHING SOMETHING” ROYALE & TAZ’S COMMENTARY

First, I know Excalibur gets some grief, but I laughed out loud when he referred to the “$300,000 something something royale” which occurred 9 months ago and admitting, like most fans, he can’t remember the silly names they call some of these matches. Secondly, Taz is at the top of his game. He subtly has a handful of great lines every week. You just need to pay attention as they are very easy to miss because most of them are delivered brilliantly deadpanned. My favorite this week was when Schiavone asked him if he ever “acted like a petulant child?” and Taz’s response: “Not on TV.”

SAMOA JOE

MJF was good in their battle. Not his usual stellar stuff, but not bad. Heck, he got a “tiny dick” chant going, which is the first time I’ve ever heard one of those. But the star of the segment was Joe. The guy oozes cool. He’s a master of facial expressions. He’s confident and quick on the mic. Joe is the perfect package to go against Max, especially with the brilliant callback to MJF’s “blink and you missed it” appearance in NXT. MJF’s promo got better and better once he was done with the jokes, but Joe was the catalyst. There was a nice tease of physicality and a perfect set up for a match at Grand Slam.

“WATCH FOR THE SHOE!”

As I mentioned last week, I LOVE shoe throwing. Toni Storm’s current character is odd and somewhat confusing, but it does not overstay its welcome and has the interviewers ducking for cover.

QUICK HITS

– It’s a joy to watch Prince Nana every week. Something about him draws your eye and I may or may not have been doing the “swerve” dance along with him on my couch.

– Is Roddy Strong’s neck brace going to be the next “Cowboy” Bob Orton arm cast? — I hope so!

– While the main event was a little weak on paper, Darby Allin did a good job telling a story and kinda sorta got the crowd into it for a bit. Christian also continues to be perfect in his role.

MISSES

SETTING UP TOURNAMENTS

I like tournaments, though AEW does A LOT of them. Many of them fail before they even begin because they never make a big deal about bracket reveals and often don’t even show a bracket until the first round is nearly over. People go nuts for the NCAA basketball tournament every March and the show where they reveal the brackets gets huge ratings. Why not take a few minutes to have Tony Schiavone reveal the matchups on the big screen and get people excited for them. That way, you don’t just throw up a graphic midway through the first match of the night showing your main event out of nowhere. On this show, it took 1 hour and 26 minutes to see a bracket. That’s unacceptable. A little more attention to detail and preparation could make these tournaments more intriguing. Also, perhaps explain what Nick Wayne and Jay Lethal did to get into a final group of eight to battle for the world championship? Plus, with the Samoa Joe-MJF set up, do we really need a tournament?? The whole thing is dumb.

SILLY SAMMY

I always dislike the “friendly fire” angles. It can’t be that hard to come up with another reason why Sammy would be upset with Jericho.

This was a good, not great, episode of Dynamite and I think it’s important to note how tired everyone in the company must be both physically and mentally after the past couple of weeks. They have the roster to give some wrestlers the night off and still put on a good show and I think that was accomplished. There were a number of things I’m excited to see progress.

RECOMMENDED NEXT: AEW COLLISION HITS & MISSES (9/2): Moxley’s promo-class-grade promo, Ricky Steamboat-Ricky Starks, Orange Cassidy speaks more, Dark Order, The Acclaimed, Nick Wayne, more

OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW Dynamite results (9/6): Powell’s live review of Darby Allin vs. Nick Wayne and Roderick Strong vs. Trent Beretta in tournament matches, Jon Moxley vs. AR Fox for the AEW International Title, All Out fallout