Whilst the ending wasn't my cup of tea that was probably due to the awkwardness/clumsiness of the execution of it more than Lee Johnson himself. Feel like you could've just ended with Black being badass and put a Johnson promo on Twitter or YouTube or whatever to get to the next squash match.

There's this weird criticism that continually gets thrown at AEW which is "casual viewers haven't heard of that person".

It's such an ignorant view of how people watch television, like the moment a new character shows up on a TV show, maybe portrayed by an actor we don't recognize, we go, "wait, who the fuck is that???" and switch over to another channel instantly.

Beyond that, I've seen people saying that "no casual fan will know who Satoshi Kojima is" - no, probably not, that's why they spent an entire promo telling us who Satoshi Kojima is and why he's important, and will likely do the same thing next week.

If anything, they may have leaned in a bit too hard on the notion that new viewers are watching for CM Punk so let's throw in people that lapsed fans would know. Matt Hardy was in the opening match, Billy Gunn popped up, Paul Wight had an angle, and then of course you've got Jericho, Sting and Christian on the show. It's fine to feature some of these dudes but you didn't need to cram 'em all onto the show.

They keep putting moxley against new japan's old men who can't really go anymore. I get not wanting to send any big guns in the current environment, but why not one of the younger up and comers? Or a mid carder like Ishii or Goto? Probably gonna send Tenzan over next.

Moxley vs Aja Kong

He had a very similar character/gimmick during his time in Impact several years before AEW existed.

It only feels like a knock-off Cornette because of Corny being the most well known loud mouth critic of AEW and Lambert turning the dial up a notch with his character in AEW.

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I disagree with you here. It's one thing to have Darius Martin, Garcia or 2.0 on the show, a guy like Ben Carter or even Feugo Del Sol. Those guys are awesome and you don't even have to know who they are to see that.

But putting The Gunn Club who are lame as fuck, Aaron Solo, QT Marshall and Nick Comaratto (who looks good but sucks dick) on the same show is absolute dumb fuckery.

I have no issue with the crew who faced off with Mox, Darby & Eddie, that was a good match.

Also when the hell is anyone going to realize that Pillman Jr. sucks and has charisma fit for a Georgia Middle School gym show. And Griff Garrison sucks even more and belongs in speedo wrestle porn.

Yeah I don't think Gunn Club vs. Factory achieved anything that a Wight/Marshall backstage vignette couldn't.

My central point though is that I see a lot of people kvetching about how AEW is "phoning it in" when they book people a casual audience wouldn't know and I disagree with that. Introducing unknown people to a big audience is a good thing. But make it people who are interesting, not the damn Factory.

I don't mind the Varsity Blonds but it might be because I have a soft spot for Griff Garrison watching Sammy's vlog. Killer theme. Julia Hart really is too green for TV though. She is legal (19) but doesn't even look it so having her out there prancing about in a cheerleader outfit feels pretty cringe. Not sure why she was thrust directly onto TV with minimal training.

I'd assume its a mix of scheduling and creative issues with the other stuff they have going on like the upcoming Stadium shows. Plus any potential COVID quarantine issues that could pop up since NJPW would be risking losing a notable name for the start of this year's G1.

I don't see it as phoning it in I see it as attempting to "make guys" or girls, but the people they are choosing are not extraordinary. Lee Johnson sucks and looks like a total nerd last night in his khakis all bunched up around his butt.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AEW Dynamite last night on TNT was watched by 1,172,000 viewers on average, the most since April 14. <br><br>620,000 viewers were aged 18 to 49 (0.48 rating), the 2nd highest ever, only short of the debut on Oct 2, 2019 (which was a 0.68).<br><br>�� Read more: <a href="https://t.co/DA5iytim8y">https://t.co/DA5iytim8y</a> <a href="https://t.co/UNCqhcNAGV">pic.twitter.com/UNCqhcNAGV</a></p>&mdash; Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1430984408165752834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It’s very unrewarding and disappointing. It doesn’t bring me any genuine unhappiness. It’s jarring to think about how much I used to care and how little I don’t now, but my life is filled with other things and is otherwise fruitful.

It’s just not even fun to say wrestling sucks anymore. It’s all so...boring.

Except that’s not what it is at all, is it? It’s more akin to watching a medical drama and instead of seeing someone dressed as a medical professional, you see a firefighter treating someone with liquorice sticks. There’s a horse running the ER. The chief of med is 14 years old. That actually sounds way more exciting than AEW.

Screaming “It’s Satoshi Kojima!” and saying he’s a Japanese legend isn’t explaining why. Nor does it explain why anyone should give a shit about Japanese wrestling anyway. How many Japanese actors can the average movie-goer name? Maybe Takeshi Miike? And that’s pretty obscure knowledge.

People want something that satisfies their preconceptions, and when it challenges them to create new pathways, isn’t just doing so haphazardly and disrespectfully.

There’s probably a few factors here. Moxley is a bit of a mark and might be doing that himself. Pushing for it and TK is spineless, so what’s he going to do? It could also just be that New Japan is taking AEW for a ride. This “Forbidden Door” has led to jack and shit so far.

Oof. People were expecting 1.5 million and the like. Not the most exciting number. Wouldn’t surprise me if it started stronger and dropped way off.

Yeah I was expecting higher.

R.I.P

That episode didn’t deserve that many views. I wonder if they’ll have any carry over going into their All Out go home week. Nonetheless that’s a great number.

Finally watched this episode and agree that it was kinda weird... some kinda bad matches on it

Def don't like how they keep having guys like "The Factory" and Lee Johnson and Gunn Club on when they have so many other really good guys who seem to wrestle on Dynamite like once every 5 months...

Still feel like Rampage is gonna hurt AEW maybe, causing cool ideas to be spread too thin instead of only having to focus on one good show per week...

Jamie Hayter so hot... beautiful large ass...

Don Callis the best part of the show

Moxley can't go either. If it's not a death match or a bunch of hardcore crap, he gets exposed very quickly. It is smart of him to work old guys that can't go because he can keep up with them.

I think it’s going to help them. They only had two hours of TV time to tell all the stories they have going on. They do a good job of building up feuds and characters via vignettes but now they can do that on rampage and get guys who aren’t on TV a lot more ring time on air.

I also love that they don’t give everyone s match every single week. It’s not needed.

Yeah, it turns out they crept towards 1.2 million for CM Punk segments, then people tuned out. Just because some people like CM Punk, it does not mean those people are going to like the slap-ass antics on the rest of the show.

A similar thing will probably happen with Bryan. Fans of his will tune in to see him. Maybe. Some of the time. For a while. But they’re going to switch off the rest of this awful product.

You have to have the stars and be good.

What would be an enticing card for you?

Taped this show while I was gone to "give it a chance" and "see what they do" with the "CM Punk boost".......

Gonna try to watch it now....

Opening up the show with Orange Cassidy lolAEW

Annnnnd they've already lost a lot of potential viewers with this Orange Cassidy kicks vs DELETE

Noticed this on Rampage too, but the ringpost cameras are terrible. Maybe if you want to use them for a replay, go ahead, but don't cut to them live please.

Confused by Matt Hardy..... doing a heel "Big Money" gimmick but still doing the DELETE thing and getting the fans to chant with him occasionally....

Damn @ Matt getting busted open

Decent little match, if a bit too long, and with a ridiculous finish...

While AEW's production values are seriously lacking, I have to give them credit for their use of pyro

What do you mean about production values specifically...

Good Jericho/MJF segment... this is probably what they should have started the show with.....

Gotta say MJF looks and sounds like someone I could never buy in a million years beating Jericho cleanly, let alone 3 times (don't know if the other two times were clean, but I heard the last one was?)

Sets, lighting, camera angles, graphics, etc....

Hate how Penta has to do the Cero Miedo thing after like every other move....

Fun little tag match, but of the "fast paced no-psychology" type that burns me out after awhile of watching it...

Oh, they replaced Vickie Guerrero with Chavo as Andrade's manager? Good idea..... though still wish Zelina Vega went to AEW with him....

Women's match too long and not interesting..... tired now....

Dark Order intolerable

Nice short and sweet promo/appearance by Punk.... really put over Darby as well as create interest in seeing the match

Really so super smart putting Sting with Darby.... instantly gives Darby tons of credibility...

Moxley theme so terrible for him.... went back and listened to his original AEW theme and it was very good IMO....