All Elite Wrestling Dynamite Debut Show Recap

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been on top for many years now. They are still on top, the debut of All Elite Wrestling with their Dynamite show on Wednesday night, airing on TNT, is not changing that. Yet. Competition is good and that is exactly what WWE has now. While AEW is not competing against Monday Night Raw or the newly launched Friday Night Smackdown, they are competing against WWE’s NXT which airs on USA Network opposite Dynamite. For their debut show, AEW put up better numbers as far as viewers go, they also bested NXT in sheer number of advertisements during the program.

First up the match card for the night

Cody Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara
Nyla Rose vs Riho for the AEW Women’s Championship
Adam “Hangman” Page vs Pac (Neville in WWE)
MJF vs Brandon Cutler
Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks vs Chris Jericho and Santana and Ortiz

I am not going to break this down match for match, there are plenty of those types of commentary on this episode available elsewhere. Instead I am going to focus on the overall show touching on key points in the matches that effected the show itself.

The voice of the product

First, let’s address that commentary/play by play/announce team. Three-person commentary rarely works. I am sorry, it doesn’t. It certainly does not work here with these three men.

Excalibur needs to go. I cannot say it any other way. He is the weak link in this trio. That is saying a lot though as his competition to stay were the voices of products during an era that changed wrestling. We still see the remnants from that era today. Losing out to them is nothing to feel bad about.

Now that is out of the way, I believe JR needs to be lead on a two man team with Tony dropping knowledge here and there. Tony is great with minute details and JR is great with giving that “feel” to the commentary – “Bah gawd!” who didn’t read that with JR’s voice saying it in their heads?

JR has that iconic voice that is still fresh with wrestling fans. Tony has the voice that is “at the back of your mind”. Considering the health and life situation of JR, I would use him to lead and lay the groundwork and reacquaint Tony to the wrestling fans building him back up to his former level in the wrestling world.

I understand Tony is big in other sports as he worked in similar positions elsewhere. That is great. That is also why AEW should keep him on the announce team – to bring those fans in. That experience makes Tony a tough one to beat for the long haul with AEW’s announce team.

Getting talent under control out of the ring

This one is a tough one to address as it is one that I am only able to connect to the action by a shoestring. See, Nyla Rose is an African American transsexual athlete. It is not just her though. It is also Cody himself getting into questionable situations.

I am focusing on Rose here as she is the one that I believe had their storyline changed with AEW due to outside the ring actions.

Rose apparently had a heckler on Twitter and responded rather poorly. I am not going to embed the pic here, you can click to read more about that situation over on Wrestlesone. I do want to point out that she deleted the tweet and apologized. The question I pose is, was it enough?

The rumor mill had Rose going over on Riho to become AEW’s first Women’s Champion. This did not happen on the inaugural episode of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite though. Even though Rose showed strong in the match and at many points looked to be closing the match with the win, she ultimately lost.

I believe that after the situation on Twitter came to light with AEW management that the outcome of the match was changed.

Think about it, what would have to happen for a company to not run with making history by having the first African American transsexual women’s champion? Rose would have major heat, as pointed out by independent wrestler Greg “The Golden Boy” Anthony on Facebook.

Camera work was quick and wild

I am not a fan of cutting and panning camera work in a show that has people performing moves like we see in the wrestling ring. This is something AEW desperately needs to get under control quick. Wednesday Dynamite was full of quick cuts, close ups, and quick panning that was often dizzying.

This is one more area that will surely be ironed out as they progress, at least I hope it is.

This is something WWE has found a good balance with. Partly due to having a crap ton of cameras available but also by not focusing on the close shot.

AEW needs to make more use of the long shot with key cuts that setup moves. This is one area that they really need to copy WWE’s homework to the letter to improve the products image.

I understand AEW is wanting to offer fans a product that is different than what WWE or anyone else is offering but camera work matters. They need to do something, or fans may be turned off as the show continues.

Records matter but rules don’t

Finally, I want to discuss a detail that is not all that talked about. AEW say wins/losses matter and will be kept track of. That is great but without rules those stats are almost useless.

For wins/losses to matter AEW needs to lay down the rule set and stick to it. For one, in the six-man tag match, Moxley entered the ring and attacked Omega. Normally this would result in a disqualification giving the win to Omega and the Young Bucks. Not here though.

The referee allowed the match to continue while Mox/Omega fought in the crowd and into the VIP section. While the fight was good, it was more an interruption to a good match already going on in the ring.

This match was eventually finished but so much camera time was spent on Mox/Omega that it made the match feel like a throw away event. That is not a good thing for the main event of the first episode.

AEW needs to put some rules into place and keep to them if they want those wins/losses to matter. There needs to be consequences for breaking those rules as well. Right now, I am not sure how AEW would implement any kind of punishment as there is no “authority figure” so to speak. I must wonder how long this will last before someone is put in a position to lay down the law as needed.

Thank you and good night

AEW’s debut on TNT was not a bad showing. It is rough around the edges. It is a learning process. I am interested in seeing how the product looks, and what kind of numbers they put up, after six months or a year on the air. Can they keep the momentum going? Will it improve or get worse? Remember, when TNA started, there was a lot of fanfare and interest and they did decent numbers.

I am interested in seeing next week’s Wednesday Night Dynamite and seeing how it builds off the first episode. Will you be watching?

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