AEW Dynamite Nov. 27, 2024 - Bread and Butter
Modern Marks is a wrestling-focused newsletter written by Rory Young. Follow Modern Marks and Rory on Bluesky.
For those in the United States, I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. I stuffed myself full of creamy mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and honey-baked ham. I edited a promotional photo of Jon Moxley holding a flare in the desert for World’s End to have Tatooine’s two suns in the background. I’ve spent the days since lethargic and broke. Holiday stuff, you know?
In celebration of the season, I have a special deal for everyone. Subscribe today and read a newsletter reviewing this past Wednesday’s outstanding Dynamite. That includes the hottest of takes — that the C2 is really fucking good, that Brody King vs. Darby Allin is a Match of the Year candidate, and that maybe Jericho DOES still have some in-ring value. Like all Black Friday deals, this deal’s admittedly a sham. You’re already reading this newsletter, after all. It’s fucking free! But, if you do subscribe, I’ll be thankful for it.
Friendship Always Wins
The main event of Dynamite this week was Brody King vs. Darby Allin, the first Continental Classic match for each man. Potentially a very wrong take, but neither of the two is expected to reach the C2 finals, never mind winning the tournament outright. They’ll each spend these next five matches showcasing their in-ring talents, developing their characters, putting their opponents over, and hopefully moving their respective budding stories forward. It’s a match with stakes, but as an early round-robin tournament match the stakes aren’t urgent. That means Brody and Darby bear full responsibility for creating a reason for this match to be compelling as it’s happening. To say they were successful would be a gross understatement.
This match, this almost absurd beatdown of an injured Darby Allin by his friend Brody King, is already shortlisted for my list of Match of the Year candidates. It is perhaps my favorite television match of 2024. Call it five stars, give it a ten out of ten, or say what you want. This match fucks.
“But Rory,” you might ask, “How can a 10-minute match, a proper beatdown of a beloved babyface, a match where both wrestlers are shown in kayfabe to not be fully at their peak?” I’m glad you asked. That’s because, and wrestling would be a more beautiful place if more fans acknowledged this, even simple ideas executed well can be perfect.
Brody King and Darby Allin are both known for violence. Brody is a monster and Darby, inversely, can absorb staggering amounts of punishment. They’re made for each other. Somewhat surprisingly, in their prior match the two shook hands and acknowledged a mutual respect. They’re currently friendly rivals. The friendship is tenuous, however, and neither man is known to be of a friendly sort. So when Darby comes to his match against Brody wrapped in bandages, injured from his car crash attack against the Death Riders, Brody is not happy. He’s embarassed. He treats Darby like he’s a joke, and knocks Darby around telling him to forfeit. It’s immediately apparent Darby’s seeming disrespect of Brody could blow up this friendship before it event starts. How could Darby show up to this match as anything less than 100%?
To be a success this fight didn’t need to be anything more than two guys beating the crap out of each other. Instead, Brody and Darby told a 10-minute story about friendship, respect, passion, and perseverance — while also beating the crap out of each other. Darby and Brody both learned something about themselves and in the process renewed their understanding of each other. If Darby had not shown up, forfeited, or lost immediately, it would have been a betrayal of both what he stands for and what Brody saw in Darby that brought them together. Brody tested Darby, Darby tested himself, and together they thrived. Not bad considering one dude ended the match posed like Yamcha after being dropped on his noggin.
Look, I love 30-minute epic back-and-forths with championship gold on the line as much or more than anyone. But if that’s the only kind of wrestling that can truly be great, then what the hell are we even doing here? The best of what wrestling is can be seen just as easily in short matches rich in well-delivered basic concepts. I was lucky to be reminded of a 2023 NJPW G1 match between Will Ospreay and Taichi recently. Taichi is and always will be a geek, but in that match he was a god. All he did was kick Ospreay in the head early, a fluke hit that disrupted Ospreay’s equilibrium for the rest of the match and allowed Taichi to take a win off of one of the tournament favorites. The match was simple, silly, and an utterly perfect and beautiful example of wrestling at its best. And that’s what the C2 2024 Darby vs. Brody match is. It is perfect and beautiful in this moment.
Continental Conundrum
I wanted to lead with a match breakdown where I spilled my heart out about a C2 match before digging into the C2 as a whole. See, the C2 is my favorite part of modern AEW. The 2023 C2 was a transformation for the company leading to its best stretch of programming since Hangman took the belt from Kenny Omega. This window of excellent wrestling went beyond just the C2, lasting from December 2023 well into 2024 and petering out around Dyanasty. The whole promotion’s direction shifted in those months, delivering more consistently great in-ring action, elevating top in-ring performers, and eschewing some of its worst sports entertainment trappings it had experimented with during the MJF championship run. It didn’t last, though. As I’ve talked about in past newsletters, AEW television since Dynasty has been worse than ever. But I never gave up hope for the C2 to rekindle the flame in AEW’s heart. One episode of Dynamite into the C2 season, and AEW just may well be elevating itself once again.
It wasn’t just the Brody King match. It was the entire episode of Dynamite, at least from an in-ring perspective. The other C2 matches, Shelton Benjamin vs. Mark Briscoe and Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricochet, were also very good. But it wasn’t limited to just the C2 matches, either. Chris Jericho and Tomohiro Ishii beat the absolute shit out of each other. They slapped each other so hard Jericho was bleeding from the mouth, getting blood onto Jericho’s hands, then leading to blood being applied to Ishii’s cheeks and giving him a rosy glow like he’d had too much to drink. Queen Aminata vs. Jamie Hayter may not have had the bloody brutality of Jericho vs. Ishii, but these women laid in their strikes and sold their asses off. Hayter’s reputation as perhaps the hardest in-ring worker of the women’s division remains well-earned. All five matches over delivered, all five had clean finishes, and all five featured at least one wrestler who doesn’t get many opportunities to show off on Dynamite regularly. Who is this AEW and what have they done with the promotion from before Full Gear?
This Dynamite wasn’t perfect, of course. It still took well over 10 minutes before the show’s first match started. I’m enjoying MVP and the Hurt Syndicate as much as everyone else, but I don’t need them or anyone else taking time from what should be in-ring action. And since we’re talking about in-ring action, AEW is still not giving enough time to it. This week’s Dynamite had almost 57 minutes of wrestling across five matches. I want to see it consistently over 60 minutes, and closer to 70 more often than not. It’s the C2 season, AEW! Let these folk cook. The last note I want to mention is that the Chicago crowd was frustratingly disappointing most of the night. Ever since CM Punk was fired, Chicago has had weird vibes. That was on full display during Dynamite, between the crowd frequently went into business for itself and otherwise being quiet. Chicago has been very supportive of AEW in the past, but this isn’t 2021 anymore. This Chicago isn’t AEW’s home anymore.
Frustrations aside, Wednesday’s Dynamite is hopefully a sign of a consistent step-up in in-ring quality through December (at least). Considering the Dynamite before Thanksgiving is historically a ratings disaster, meaning AEW likely underbooked the show reserving better matchups for future programming, there’s a lot to be hopeful about. If we’re lucky, Okada, Hangman, and Ospreay will all return to Dynamite for the rest of the month. I could be wrong, though. As long as the match quality keeps up, I’ll continue to be AEW’s biggest fan.
Quick Takes
There’s still lots of ground to cover, so let’s try and sum up some thoughts in a more manageable fashion:
Jericho: I am and will continue to be one of Jericho’s largest critics. His ringwork is nowhere near what it used to be. He gets way too much TV time for how uninteresting his stories are. I do need to give him at least a little bit of credit for being willing to do a throwback strong style match against Ishii, but that’s not the point I want to get to here. Jericho needs to lose these matches. This Ishii match goes from a one-off example of how Jericho can still be fun to something special if Ishii wins. Not just this match, either. Jericho should start losing constantly. It’s a better story for him and his faction than whatever else he’s doing. Yes, it won’t happen while he has the ROH belt, but maybe AEW will figure that out and course correct by Final Battle.
Adam Cole and MJF: It’s one thing to think MJF and Adam Cole, separately or together, could create magic. It’s another thing to acknowledge that what they’re doing right now is only hurting both men. Maybe it’s MJF being unavailable the entire time and only offering pre-recorded videos. Maybe Adam Cole is feeling stagnant in what’s yet another chapter of the Undisputed Era storyline. It’s certainly not for lack of TV time. Whatever the reason, it’s not working and there are so many other stories that could do so much more with this time. But we can also acknowledge Tony Khan cares more about keeping his favorites busy than ensuring trying to keep TV hot, so…
Okada: To deviate away from Dynamite and give Collision a bit of love, Daniel Garcia and Kazuchika Okada delivered a hell of a match in Saturday’s main event. It needs to be said, repeated, and wept over, however, that Okada continues to have just an astoundingly disappointing opening run at AEW. Okada is arguably the best pro wrestler on the planet. Right now. And yet over the past six months, Okada’s gone from part of the hottest angle in AEW to being presented as a struggling mid-card champion resorting to cheating and running out the clock. It’s an embarrassment for AEW. And I say that wanting Daniel Garcia to be presented as extremely strong in the C2! It still should have been him struggling to keep up with Okada and barely holding on. Garcia is TNT champion and an exciting AEW prospect, but he will never be on Okada’s level. Especially not in this moment.
TV Match Production: The C2 immediately elevates match quality for AEW TV, in my humble opinion. The simple addition of a sports-minded tournament story, and the restrictions that stop (most) interference and cheating, shift the matches toward a type of style that I adore. With that said, the criticisms I’ve had over the past several months regarding TV match production continue to be true. These men are not putting on the best matches they could be. I will repeat that there seems to be some sort of limitation placed on them that slows them down, keeps them from delivering exciting spots or moves, etc. Is it due to safety concerns? Wanting certain matches or wrestlers to stand out compared to others? A change in TV match production styles prioritizing sports entertainment theatricality? Whatever the reason, it needs to change. AEW TV will not grow until its wrestlers are allowed to go out there every week and deliver to the best of their ability, regardless of how awesome the C2 is.
Before closing out the newsletter, I do want to mention AEW’s women’s division. But the more I think about it the more I’m uncertain about what to say. For now, I’ll note: the women need more time in-ring on television.
Thanks everyone for reading. The holiday season is always my favorite time of year for wrestling because of all the big Japanese shows. AEW’s C2 and Winter is Coming have made the season all the better. The holidays may add a bit of delay to my newsletter drops, but I figure it’s still worth sharing them as I’m able. Take care, everyone!
-Rory