MJF and Adam Cole defeated Big Bill and Brian Cage in the semifinals of the Blind Tag Team Eliminator Tournament on AEW Dynamite this week.
On a recent episode of “Busted Open Radio,” Bully Ray criticized the match for its comedy elements, the way Bill and Cage were presented, MJF’s lack of selling, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the comedy spots in the match: “Overall, I thought last night’s show was good. There were a lot of fun things on the show, but there were a couple of things that, to me, did not make sense. It’s not even the refereeing stuff, it’s [the] psychology of a match. It’s actually the MJF-Adam Cole match… “So it is supposed to be a serious match, right? Because it is part of a tournament that obviously MJF wants to win real bad, because MJF and Cole winning helps lure Cole in a lot more with MJF… I felt that there should have been a bit more … seriousness on the front end. Right off the bat, we get MJF going in for the body slam, and then really doing that hokey sell of his back. I believed that the first half of the match felt like a house show match to me.”
On how Big Bill & Brian Cage were presented: “In a situation like this, where you’re going to put your opponents over so clean, there should be a little bit of protection for a guy who looks like the next coming of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a guy who’s seven feet tall and you can’t teach that. There’s a spot in the middle of the match, towards the beginning of the comeback, where MJF and Big Bill are face-to-face, and Big Bill starts taking steps backwards as if MJF is backing him down,” Bully said. The former WWE star stated that moment just wasn’t believable for him, and it got worse from there.
On MJF’s lack of selling: “I put MJF over on this show 99% of the time we talk [about] him, and across the board, I probably blow more smoke up MJF’s a** than anybody else on this show that we talk about. But come on — you gotta bump for the big man. There’s no reason why you can’t take that bump, register it, sell it, and then get up in that fighting spirit way.” Following that, Bully feels that the match continued progressing off the rails. And then we get a biting of the finger, and a body slam, because they’re trying to pay off the body slam. A little hokey, but I’m sure they could’ve done it in a way that would’ve gotten a response where they’re like, ‘Holy s**t, MJF did it!’ as opposed to, ‘Ha ha ha, MJF did it.’”
“And then we get to the actual finish with Brian Cage. And Brian Cage just takes a move from one guy, a move from another guy, and then gets pinned. Brian Cage is a monster. There’s a way to protect him. This was a perfect opportunity for the proverbial misdirection spot.”
On AEW not investing in big men: “AEW is not a big man company. Tony Khan does not invest in big men, period. End of sentence. His company, his choice to do so. Every once in a while, yes, a … big man gets a little taste of something, but they don’t really focus on anybody. If it’s up to me, I’m focusing on Powerhouse Hobbs. I’m putting as much shine and spotlight on Powerhouse Hobbs as I am Moxley or CM Punk. Because he is an up-and-coming talent, [he] looks the part, is doing a better job speaking the part.”
