AEW Dynamite Dec. 4, 2024 - Hot and Cold
Modern Marks is a wrestling-focused newsletter written by Rory Young. Follow Modern Marks and Rory on Bluesky.
Friends, set aside the online discourse. I have glorious news. Yes, it’s true, the Continental Classic remains good. Wrestling is good. AEW is good. It’s so good, in fact, that I am going to do something today I never thought I would again. I am going to watch AEW Rampage. Tony Khan has done it again.
All exaggeration aside, it really can’t be understated how much better a show AEW Dynamite is during the Continental Classic season. It is by no means a perfect show. I wouldn’t even call AEW hot at the moment. But AEW Dynamite is, once again, the best source for great wrestling week-to-week. It’s only been two weeks, but it matters. It’s not a high bar, but it’s meaningful.
Tempo
AEW Dynamite delivers two hours of television every single week. Those two hours include wrestling, entrances, video packages, promos, commentary, and advertising, among other things. It’s a broad range of types of content and AEW is tasked with ensuring it’s all presented entertainingly so that viewers don’t change the channel. A key facet of that is tempo. Tempo relates not only to the wrestling itself but also to the speed of delivery of other types of content and the transitions between them. This is a specific area in which I believe AEW has made significant improvements recently.
This week’s Dynamite featured nearly 65 minutes of in-ring action. That’s substantially more than prior months on average. But viewers can attest to the fact that despite the expanded in-ring action, the rest of the show was stuffed to the brim with additional content. To list it out: Dynamite opened with a C2 informative video package, Hook challenged the Patriarchy before getting his hand smashed, Mercedes Mone did an interview with Renee Paquette, MVP voiced his frustrations at Shelton Benjamin after his loss to Kyle Fletcher, The Acclaimed voiced their displeasure with Max Caster, MJF delivered his required weekly Dynamite pre-recorded video promo, a lengthy post-match angle following Jay White vs. PAC featuring multiple Death Riders, Hangman Adam Page, Christian Cage, and the exciting return of Orange Cassidy, Jamie Hayter threatened and challenged Julia Hart, Anna Jay challenged Meredes after her match and the champion came out to the ring to accept, Jericho did a kayfabe advertisement for Ring of Honor Final Battle, a vignette teased the return of Bandido, and Mina Shirakawa interrupted a not-quite interview between Mariah May and Renee. Deep breath. AEW managed to pack a whole lot into Dynamite on top of a boatload more great wrestling. Tempo.
Pro wrestling tempo is not a complicated science. Great wrestling television exhilarates, accelerates, and leaves viewers exhausted and wanting more. For AEW, that means a lot of great wrestling. I assumed that AEW would have to cut some of its promos, interviews, and video packages in order to get more wrestling on Dynamite. Instead, AEW said, “We can do both.” AEW found ways to fit more into less time. Part of that was using transitions better, getting to different show segments faster, or using things like entrances to slip in an ad call or short video package. A larger part seemed like a greater effort to get to the fucking point. MVP doesn’t need five minutes to make clear he’s disappointed in Shelton Benjamin’s performance. Jamie Hayter didn’t need a video package to tell Julia Hart she wants to stand across from her in a ring. And while there were what felt like a dozen people involved in the Death Riders runout segment, everyone did what they needed to quickly and then the action moved on.
I know this isn’t a hot take or looking at AEW from a fun new angle. It’s basic stuff. But sometimes that’s where the most important changes are happening. AEW Dynamite this week had a faster tempo, and it was a better show than usual because of it.
Big Money Bummers
Last week, I wrote about how the Continental Classic tournament forced AEW to book better wrestling. Hard workers like Brodie King, Claudio Castagnoli, and Kyle Fletcher who might otherwise wrestle on TV once a month are now wrestling at least once a week. It only works because many of AEW’s top wrestlers either won’t wrestle that much or are too protected to take a loss like most C2 wrestlers will be doing. But unlike last year’s C2, where many of AEW’s top wrestlers took December off while the tournament progressed, this year AEW is trying to keep them around. It’s not great for TV, but it’s very good for helping me punch one of my biggest AEW criticisms home.
AEW has long booked through a system that guarantees its highest-paid wrestlers get near-guaranteed TV time. It’s a big part of why certain wrestlers may receive big pushes and victories only to immediately fall back into the midcard. At times, this has worked out perfectly well for AEW. Few would argue that in AEW’s early years Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, and Cody Rhodes needed to be on TV every week. But as the Cody-Verse showed, that system can go wrong quickly. Wrestling cards need to be able to elevate rising popular talent when they are hot, and in turn need to be able to deprioritize wrestlers when they are not.
It is not fun to say that several of AEW’s top wrestlers are actively making its TV product worse every single week. Yet it’s still necessary to be acknowledged. I don’t want to spend a big part of the newsletter explaining why specific wrestlers are struggling, but I don’t want to cop out either. Adam Cole, MJF, Chris Jericho, and Mercedes Mone are all on TV every single week, and every single week they show why it’s a bad idea to guarantee TV time to your top-paid wrestlers. That’s not to say they don’t have their strengths. I think MJF can be exceptionally creative, and Mercedes is delivering the best PPV matches the TBS belt has ever seen. But that’s all the more reason they should either take time off TV or shift to Rampage or Collision to rework their stories and characters.
This point makes a lot more sense when you consider who could benefit from additional TV time, even if it comes at the expense of some of AEW’s biggest names. Private Party, Konosuke Takeshita, and Kazuchika Okada are current AEW champions who rarely are allowed to have matches on AEW Dynamite. As such, these champinships are often a focus of significant criticism. AEW is accused of having too many championships, and the wrestlers themselves are criticized as failing to live up to having a belt. But it’s AEW’s booking that hurts the wrestlers and fan views of the belts. Everyone understands how unacceptable this is, but next week Adam Cole will wrestle Kyle O’Reilly in a bummer of a match and Konosuke Takeshita will remain at home until January.
The champions aren’t the only wrestlers suffering from AEW’s booking priorities. Hangman Adam Page, Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, Will Ospreay, and Swerve Strickland are what I see as AEW’s hottest acts right now. And while there have been adjustments recently to keep them on TV more frequently, they are largely being limited to awkwardly fitting into other acts’ angles rather than getting substantial TV time and segments on their own. These are the wrestlers who truly deserve and have earned that time. But they are seen as being lower on the card and so are positioned worse than others as a result.
I don’t expect any changes in this area of substance anytime soon. Even so, there are positive signs that deserve to be acknowledged. Jericho limited to just a short commercial for Ring of Honor is a good step. Orange Cassidy unexpectedly being slotted into the World’s End main event match, perhaps instead of Christian, is a good sign. But there’s still a lot of work to do, too.
Quick takes
With respect for everyone’s time, here are some shorter takes on various topics that deserve to be recognized but that no one needs to read 1,000+ words on.
Belt Up Brody King: This guy is so fucking good. Have him lose this tournament and then win the World Championship. His ultraviolent protective teddy bear vibe is outstanding and unique. Another potential superstar AEW needs to put a rocket on.
Midcard C2: This week’s schedule for the C2 cements the idea that this tournament is a midcard event. Last year’s tournament, with top carders Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Swerve Strickland, as well as a great selection of up-and-comers and, was presented as the most important thing in AEW. This year’s event is not. The Death Riders and the chaos surrounding them continues to take the spotlight. As a result, a lot of big C2 matches are being offloaded from Dynamite to Rampage and Collision. It’s fine overall, but only because most C2 participants don’t have important stories to follow. Even the Dynamite matches are strange choices. Not bad, but strange. Okada, the current Continental Champion, has yet to have a match on Dynamite. I don’t blame AEW for experimenting with this, but in future years AEW should absolutely focus December entirely around the Continental Classic and guarantee all of its participants have important stories to follow.
Dynamite Dozen Battle Royale: This was easily the worst part of Dynamite this week and for good reason. Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly were the obvious winners, and otherwise did nothing important the entire match. More than that, though, no one else in the match was presented as important or strong. Imagine how much bigger the supposed heel turn from Lio and Andretti would have been if Top Flight had gotten a good amount of eliminations first. If Top Flight, Lio, and Andretti had been given time to show comradery before the betrayal. There was no need for Brian Cage and Lance Archer to make it to the end of the match when they have no story developing and nothing important to do in the match. None of this would have made the match good, but it could have made it interesting.
Popular Heels: Here’s another long-running criticism of AEW rearing its ugly head again. In modern wrestling, fans like to cheer for the bad guy. It’s not like in the past (or Chicago) when fans would go into business for themselves. It’s that modern fans love great wrestling and appreciate the heel role in equal measure to faces. AEW has responded in the worst way to this, frequently turning popular heels face, which not only often kills their momentum but also denies fans a proper planned and developed moment where the wrestler turns. Instead, we have examples like on Dynamite where popular heel Hangman Adam Page was welcome to Buckshot Lariat Jon Moxley by both Jay White, who hates Hangman, and Orange Cassidy. Speaking of Jay White, he is living out this problem as we speak. Jay White is a heel. He acts like a heel, he wrestles like a heel, and if he wrestled a face everyone would assume he’s still a heel. But AEW isn’t booking him that way. AEW is treating him like a face, and it’s awkward and not for Jay White’s betterment. Luckily, he’s still oustanding in the ring and his match against PAC was great.
Swerve Squash: This match was so cathartic. Max Caster’s constant sexist, homophobic bullshit is so unwelcome in modern wrestling, and yet AEW has platformed him and put him on Dynamite for years. I’m not holding out hope Caster just fucking disappears. Bowens still needs to properly split from him, and even then. But, right now, this was good. Fuck Max Caster.
Women’s Division Mess: I like both Anna Jay and Penelope Ford. Anna Jay and Penelope Ford should not be wrestling on AEW Dynamite. Maybe if Anna Jay had a proper build, or if Penelope Ford had another few months of regular matches and had found her ring-legs again. As it is, there are six or seven other angles, and ten or so other women who desperately need that Dynamite time to keep their momentum going. But Mercedes only works Dynamite, and Anna Jay is her next challenger. It makes sense, but it’s the wrong choice.
Commentary and Schiavone: I like Tony Schiavone, but y’all already know where this is going. AEW desperately needs Taz back. Taz’s genuine enthusiasm for pro wrestling and his deep familiarity with the wrestlers (and his co-commentator Excalibur) leads to such excellent TV. Meanwhile, Schiavone’s loud voice false enthusiasm and generally distracted point-of-view is frustrating to deal with. There was a moment on Dynamite when Jay White started bleeding from the mouth. Five minutes later, Schiavone shouted, “He’s bleeding from the ear!” after noticing some of the blood that had smeared all over White’s head. Excalibur corrected Schiavone, and sounded notably exhausted as well. The old guy still does great in-ring interviews, though.
Next week’s Dynamite is looking great. We already have a full card, so there’s not much for me to say I’m hoping to see. What I will say, though, is that it’s all but guaranteed that Will Ospreay vs. Claudio Castagnoli is going to fuck. And that’s awesome.
Thanks for reading the newsletter, everyone. It means a lot. December is always a mess of a month, for any number of reasons. This year’s no different. Having folk read the newsletter and send me messages about it is always welcome. Have a great weekend! Enjoy Rampage and Collision!
-Rory