The wrestling world is one that's long been controlled by the WWE well almost five years ago a new upstart company started airing a weekly TV series. With that series and that company very quickly becoming the number two wrestling promotion for a lot of people and well as they've just aired there final episode of the year it was only about right that I take a look at one of the episodes to see if the show is still good and so then join me as I review an episode of the show is dubbed New Years Smash with the episode in question being and episode of "AEW Dynamite" enjoy.
There really wasn't much of a plot on this episode with the main focus being who would be competing in the Continental Classic finals. Now then interms f what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual lot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as there really wasn't much in the way of plot of this episode which was to be expected as not alot of wrestling shows have alot of plot running through them but at them same time this show could have done with bit more plot driven scenes just to give more of the AEW roster something to do but what little plot we do get was really entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
The set for this show was really good with being one giant LED screen for a background and about three smaller screens at the top and bottom. Which does give the set for this show a rather unique look at the same time it does leave the set for this show with alot of dead space with there being nothing at either side of the set which really isn't a bad thing as this is something that they have to take down and rebuild every single so and as such expecting a highly elaborate set each and every week just wouldn't be feasible as it would be something that would cost AEW quite alot of money each and every week but at the same time it wouldn't hurt if they had some theme running through the set as it would only add to the show and add to the shows production value something which the current set for this show really doesn't do.
LED screens are a good way to add production value and add to the atmosphere of the show which is something that this shown really doesn't do at all. As this episode could have done with the LED screens being used in a way that enhanced whatever the bookers for the show wanted us to feel instead of just going on gut instinct with this being really being an issue in the Bryan Danielson Vs Eddie Kingston match as that match is meant to be nothing more then a brawl and yet the LED screens make it look like it's just a normal match when that really isn't the case as it's the semi-final in a tournament something which really isn't effected in the LED screens and while they don't really need to use them all that much they are there to make the show better which means that they should have been used to make the atmosphere in that match all the more better then it already is.
As is to be expected as this show is the final show before a PPV this episode is filled to the brim with some last minuet build. Which is to be expected as they do have a show to promote but at the same time it's something that could have been done in a better way as how it's done here just makes it feel like that there stopping the show in order to promote the next show which only makes the show feel like a chore to sit through and it makes the PPV's storylines feel more important then getting through an episode of the show when both of them should have been as equally important as without the show you'd have no PPV to promote in the first place but on the flip side of the is the fact that you have to expect a lot of last build for PPV's the issue is tho is that that usually means that the PPV in question is most likely a terrible show that's treated as an after thought.
We got some returns during this show the most notable of which being Sammy Guevara who returned after becoming a new father. His return was in all honesty really well done as it's something that wasn't built up it was just something that happened on the night with it also being something that tied into his past relationship with Christ Jericho which was a really sweet thing to see as the two of them have been close friends since Dynamite started and as such having them appear in this segment really does make a lot of sense as he would of course want to back up his friend when he needed him the most and while the segment does go on a bit to long which will have a knock on effect for making the main event really short there's no denying that the segment archived it's goal of welcoming Sammy Guevara back in a way that makes sense.
One of the things that I loathed about this episode is the fact that it has quite alot of segments that go on for a quite long time. With both the Sammy Guevara , Christ Jericho and The Challis Family segment running long as does the match with Skye Blue and Kris Statlander which has a segment after the match which does go on for a while when paired with the match both of which really don't need to go as long as they do as both segments could have archived their goals in a shorter amount of time and with the time saved from both segments they could have added to the main event in order to make that match the best that it could have been but yet for some reason they decided to give both of these segments that don't add anything to the actual episode itself a longer then needed running time instead of giving it to a segment that's dealing with the biggest AEW storyline thus far.
The devil storyline was really well handled in this episode and was in all honesty a true highlight of the episode. As it now adds a wrinkle to the main event of World's End as well as raising the stakes for that match as well but at the same time if the main event of this show had a longer running time then it could have made the big reveal at the end all of the more impactful and it would have built up MJF as someone who is a credible threat to this Devil character and yet by having this segment run at just under two minuets has the opposite effect as while we already know that MJF is a threat to any member of the AEW roster what we don't know is if he can take this Devil character and that's something could have been set up better if the main even of this show had some much more time dedicated to it instead of being really just under two minuets in length.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and fifty three minuets and forty eights seconds. Which was a fairly solid running time for this episode to have as the matches that this show does have do run for a good amount of time for the most part but given that this show has so much to fit and so little time in which to it it would have been to this episodes benefit if the episode ran a little bit longer just so that the episode could have been as good as could have been and yet because of this running time it does mean that segments that should have been longer as now the episode has extend segments that add nothing to this episode but will add something to the upcoming PPV with this not really being helped by the fact that this episode has two matches in a row that run for well over twenty minuets each but I will admit this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So ow then as this is a wrestling show that means that I gave to actually talk about the actual wrestling that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual wrestling that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With all four matches in this episode being really good for the most part as the main event really isn't allowed to be as good as it really should have been given who is taking part in it but all of the three previous matches were all really really good with the best match in the episode easily being the three way match between Jon Moxley , Swerve Strickland and Jay White as that match was not really fun to see but was also really entertaining to watch as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this wasn't a bad episode of the show and was a solid episode to end 2023 on for AEW Dynamite but at the same time it's an episode that could have been so much better as well tho in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns it self a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now the as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very special that I used in this very review being the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on the official Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page are all really fairly high in quality and as well as being fairly freaking high in definition.