AEW Booms and Duds: Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy debut

AEW’s first empty-arena show was well done, considering the circumstances. Stories were extended, characters debuted, and AEW was even able to make productive use of the wrestlers acting as the crowd. Let’s look at the booms and duds from the Mar. 18, 2020 episode of Dynamite.

Well, this was a different empty-arena show compared to WWE’s offerings last Friday and Monday nights. Even with no audience, AEW Dynamite didn’t seem odd or out of place. Rather, it was a pretty enjoyable show, something I couldn’t say about RAW and SmackDown.

There’s an argument this is due to the novelty of AEW still being such a new promotion. Maybe a lot of us are more willing to overlook the inherent weirdness of watching and hearing wrestling with virtually no crowd.

AEW, kind of in line with my idea of NXT wrestlers being dispersed through the crowd to “scout” their competition, had other wrestlers in the crowd (separated into heel and face sides) that provided their own entertainment throughout the night.

(Remember that it’s been reported that Tony Khan is letting wrestlers stay home if they have worries about the Coronavirus pandemic. This could account for the wrestlers who were present or absent last night.)

I’d say it has more to do with generally coherent and long-term storytelling coupled with an in-ring style that doesn’t necessarily need a crowd. The thing about WWE-style is it’s infused with playing to the crowd/cameras so much that the storytelling in the ring tends to suffer. That wasn’t the case with last night’s Dynamite.

Rather, the AEW formula seems to place more emphasis on the cameras being in the right spot to catch the action rather than the wrestlers being forced into the right angle for the cameras. This seemed to be for the worse through the first three or four months of the show, but there has been improvement with the production truck generally making sure their crew is in the right spot to record a great shot.

There was still a bit of that WWE-style in the main event, not surprising since both Cody and Jake Hager spent the majority of their careers in WWE. The long, drawn out babyface beatdown and heels cutting off the ring with grappling holds and corner work (through multiple commercials no less) building to a hot tag seems almost like a RAW main event formula.

Still, it was a good show. Was it good enough to be the second show I give only booms?

As a reminder of my criteria, I’m not going to run through each match/segment. Rather, I will identify a couple of segments that either worked (“boom”) or didn’t for whatever reason (“dud”).

My criteria includes quality of match/segment and how it starts and/or builds stories. After all, we watch partly to be caught up in the stories. If a great work-rate match happens with no context or bearing on the stories, it’s going to be a miss.

Also, just because something is a hit/miss doesn’t mean it was an overwhelming choice. The selection could be 51 percent hit, 75 percent miss, and so on.

There are other subtleties to my criteria, but those are pretty much the parameters.

We had the opening promo with Cody, Kenny Omega, and Matt Jackson (with an appearance by Adam “Hangman” Page); Lucha Bros vs. Best Friends (with Orange Cassidy); Penelope Ford (with Kip Sabian) vs. Kris Statlander vs. Riho vs. Hikaru Shida; The Butcher and The Blade vs. Jurassic Express (Luchasuarus and Jungle Boy); the reveal of The Exalted One; a Lance Archer vignette; and The Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, & Hager) vs. The Elite (Cody, Matt Jackson, & Page).

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1240442125973479424

Boom: patient, coherent storytelling

Each match and segment tonight continued what have been long-term stories or continued to setup what appear to be long-term stories.

Lucha Bros and Best Friends have had issues dating to late last year, not to mention the issues between PAC and Orange Cassidy. We’re likely to have a trios match at Double or Nothing at this rate.

The same goes for Jurassic Express and The Butcher and The Blade. Further, seeing that (kayfabe) MJF brought the latter to AEW by hiring them as his mercenaries (a trope AEW seems rather fond of), it made sense why they would converse with him at ringside during their match.

The women’s match saw a continuation of the budding Ford-Riho rivalry (Ford beat Riho on Dark this week) and another path crossing of Shida and Statlander. Riho is now 0-4 in her last four matches after being undefeated for so long; does she reemerge as a contender by defeating Ford, or does her tailspin continue? What about Ford if she beats Riho?

Statlander is treading water, but also someone without a clear path with Big Swole and Britt Baker seemingly locked into a feud. Where does Statlander go next?

Now that Shida is seemingly #1 contender, how will she be framed as a challenger for Women’s Champion Nyla Rose, particularly after Bea Priestly made her intentions for the title known last week?

Of course, the main event saw the continuation of what is now a six-month story between The Inner Circle and The Elite. The teases of friction between Page and Matt only for them to work seamlessly together should help create even more of a shocked reaction should one of them turn heel next week.

It also gave us this gem:

The main event also culminated in the second big debut of the night, but the first I’ll cover.

Boom: the “Broken Universe” descends upon AEW

The popular theory for Matt Hardy in AEW was that he was The Exalted One, but the identity of The Exalted One was revealed earlier in the night (more on that in the next slide).

However, I thought it was unlikely considering The Young Bucks (once a target of Dark Order) met Hardy at the Hardy Compound a few weeks ago on an episode of “Free the Delete.”

After Nick Jackson’s injury last week (Chris Jericho mentioned they found Nick like that, but the garage door was too heavy; poor Nick), a spot was opened up for The Elite, and then…is that…yes, it is! It’s Vanguard-1!

Vanguard-1 was a nice touch, a relic from when Hardy’s “Broken” character really rose to prominence during his time in Impact Wrestling. It really helped peak the excitement when the camera panned to Hardy in the stands, arms extended laughing maniacally and doing his “Delete!” motion.

This worked on multiple levels. The first is that with all the overt and subtle clues that seemed to hint at Hardy being The Exalted One, AEW basically broke our ankles with the earlier reveal, though maybe staggering the reveals would have made it that much more effective. Hardy does seem perfect (in his “Broken” gimmick) to lead Dark Order, but I think this was the right call.

This leads to another level how it works. We know that the creativity in Hardy’s brain will not plateau anytime soon. However, his physical capabilities are not at the same level. He can still put on a decent match, but I don’t know if he should be trusted to carry a 14-minute singles match, something that seems likely for The Exalted One.

Being part of a 10-man match allows Hardy (particularly if he doesn’t start the match) to do some spots, get hit with some spots, and rest in the corner (as Jericho should) while the younger and more physically capable wrestlers in the match put on a show.

He probably would be involved with The Elite going forward in some capacity, and hopefully that leads him to more tag matches in a promotion that values tag team wrestling. I can just imagine the creative angles and stories he could infuse into the tag division.

Speaking of, how much influence does Hardy have in the ongoing tensions between Page and Matt Jackson?

Let’s not forget Hardy and The Elite have had a long-lasting friendship in real life, making this selection that much more believable.

Overall, this ending sequence was well done. Using Vanguard-1 to signal Hardy’s arrival was a nice Easter egg for those who have followed Hardy’s career. I’m intrigued to see how Hardy’s character manifests in AEW, and how he plays into the match next week.

Oh, and here’s the “Free the Delete” episode that uploaded after the show. Zenith is dead, so say hi to Damascus.

Boom: an obvious but great selection

While I had been hoping for Scorpio Sky, the actual reveal of The Exalted One just worked. Hardy was the popular choice, but the second was Brodie Lee (fka Luke Harper). Well:

The obviousness of this selection dates to his past as a member of The Wyatt Family, particularly its early cult-like days. Still, it works. Why?

One, Brodie Lee is fantastic in the ring. His size stands out, but for such a big man, he is rather athletic. His offense is stiff, he has a unique move set, wonderful facial expressions, and a good sense of ring psychology. Along with Archer, his signing brings a different size to what is mostly a homogeneously-sized men’s roster.

Two, his presence itself is that of a brooding, creepy, scary man. What better person to lead a brooding, creepy, trying-to-be-scary group of wrestlers?

Third, and most importantly, this man can deliver a good promo. He was never really given the chance in WWE, but along with that presence, he understands how to use his voice, his face, his eyes, and his body language to send a message.

The line of the night was, “Mr. Daniels, I assure you, you are not the first out-of-touch old man to not believe in me, but I will make damn sure you are the last.” You just have to love how such a sinister character refers to Daniels as “Mr. Daniels,” and of course, the shot at Vince McMahon.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s more creepy when an evil character refers to people with honorifics?

Lee, as The Exalted One, is most likely set to be a singles act. He can delegate Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds to work tag, trios, and eight-person matches while he focuses on singularly destroying Christopher Daniels (at first) and then others after (like The Elite). Uno and Grayson might focus on SCU, and Silver and Reynolds on a team like Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall.

While the last three signings of Archer, Lee, and Hardy do nothing to mitigate the lack of men of color in the singles division (partly why I wanted it to be Sky), they are undoubtedly great signings and should bring positives for AEW moving forward.

https://twitter.com/AEWonTNT/status/1240449555277025280

Boom: I can’t believe I actually typed “Murderhawk Monster”

While I thought the debut of Archer just jauntily making his way to some ringside seats with Jake “The Snake” Roberts was a bit inauspicious, this package seemed to hype a lot of fans for Archer’s in-ring debut.

From the standpoint of an AEW-only viewer who only knows of Archer through what they’ve seen on Dynamite, I think it would have been nice for Archer to just lay out one line for his mission statement: “I’m here to Kill The Elite.” I mean, he already intimated as much on Twitter when he signed.

Since all wrestling promotions should be trying to gain more and new viewers, a simple line might have been nice. Roberts’ ring-side interview did help, but I do want to hear from Archer soon.

Still, it did portray Archer as a ruthless, aggressive heathen who lives to fight and, well, “murder” people. He is the “Murderhawk Monster” after all. His favorite saying seems to be “Everybody dies.” Basically, he’s a sociopath-turned-wrestler (kayfabe); seems like the perfect hire for a mercenary.

I also assume that most AEW viewers are aware of Archer’s time in New Japan Pro Wrestling. I’ve said before that his showing in last year’s G1 event was a revelation for those who saw his ceiling as what he showed in WWE and Impact Wrestling. His Texas Death Match against Jon Moxley is one you should watch as well.

As with Lee, his size and style will bring a much needed diversity in size and in-ring work to AEW men’s singles roster. He also tends to inflict as much brutality as he can (again, “Muderhawk”), equipped with a devastating chokeslam and iron claw. Particularly with the claw, the look on Archer’s face makes it seem like he’s actually trying to crush his opponent’s skull.

There is one aspect in the macro to keep an eye out for with AEW. In six months of television, this is already the third hired mercenary angle. The first was the aforementioned “hiring” of The Butcher and The Blade by MJF. The second was Jericho “paying” Jeff Cobb for his one-off match with Moxley. Roberts with Archer is the third. I don’t think it would stand out as much if it was more spaced out, but three times in six months does seem a bit much.

There we have it! This is my second booms/duds piece with no duds involved, and not necessarily something I expected considering the pandemic and changes to live sporting events. This was also a great bounce-back from what I thought was an average show last week.

While I still think they should change the name of “Blood & Guts” to something a little less…topical, I’m looking forward to what AEW has in store for us next week, and how that builds towards Double or Nothing, that is, if there is a show next week.

See you (hopefully) next week!