Previously on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite: Lance Archer turned Dustin Rhodes inside out to send a message to Cody, Dr. Britt Baker hung up inspirational posters of herself in her own office, and Vickie Guerrero of all people won an app-based “Manitoba Melee.” Let the record books show that Vickie has victories over both Jay AND Silent Bob.
If you’d like to keep up with this column and its thinly veiled Best and Worst format, you can keep tabs on the Ins and Outs of AEW Dynamite tag page. You can keep track of all things All Elite here.
And now, the Ins and Outs of All Elite Wrestling Dynamite for May 6, 2020.
All In: The Secretly Evil (?) Cody Rhodes
One of my favorite ongoing undercurrents of a story is the notion that hero of the people and Face That Runs The Place, Cody Rhodes, is actually secretly evil. It makes sense if you think about it. I’m not sure I can have a cork board ready with all the connections I’ve made — CAROL! CAROL! — but let’s break it down.
A lot of people cut promos on Cody, but the three major, ongoing contributions come from MJF, Shawn Spears, and Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts. MJF was Cody’s right hand man for a while but turned his back on him, with the rationale being that MJF was never Cody’s friend, and was just coattail-riding him to the top. There’s another possible explanation, though … MJF WAS Cody’s friend. The evil Cody. The “American Nightmare” who was (kayfabe) one of the worst people on Earth during his time in New Japan. The guy who spent most of his time in WWE either chilling with Randy Orton, teaming up with bottom-feeder Damien Sandow, or wearing a protective mask like he’s the Phantom of the Opera and putting paper bags on people’s heads. He’s been a bad guy more than he’s been good, and I think that’s what MJF latched onto. I think MJF was just waiting for Cody to flip the switch and reveal his wicked master plan, but Cody got too into the positive crowd reactions and the day-to-day operations of setting up a televised wrestling promotion and forgot to do it. MJF betrayed him, and then spent a long time trying to goad Cody into doing the worst things at the worst times. It’s like he secretly still believes in his friend’s capacity for terribleness.
Spears has had beef with Cody since that time he tried to cave in Cody’s skull with a steel chair. Cody’s victories over Spears pushed him to the bottom of the card where he languished among the Librarians and Brandon Cutlers of the roster, trying to find a tag team partner to face other tag teams on the pre-show. Spears and Cody had a match in the first round of the TNT Championship Tournament, however, and it was Spears’ best performance in ages. He followed that up by busting out the best looking Sharpshooter we’ve seen on TV since Bret stopped doing it, and now he’s got enough confidence to start sticking his nose back into Cody’s business.
For example, this promo.
In it, Spears rationally explains how the person responsible for Dustin Rhodes’ massacre at the hands of Lance Archer is Cody, and Cody alone. Dustin’s out there just trying to do his job and stick up for his little brother. QT Marshall’s at ringside trying to throw in the towel, because he doesn’t want to see his tag team partner and friend’s face get turned into hamburger meat by a crazy person. But Cody showed up and prevented the towel from being thrown. Cody’s the reason Archer’s on this rampage in the first place, because he wouldn’t just give Archer a match. And speaking of that …
Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts makes it very clear that Cody is “Caesar;” a flawed, opportunistic leader who purports to promote the interests of the people but is really only in it for himself. Roberts’ client, Lance Archer, wants a match against Cody. What does Cody do? The honorable babyface thing of, “I never back down from a challenge, how about we do it RIGHT HERE TONIGHT?” Nope. He says Lance needs to prove himself in AEW and can’t just waltz in and start challenging the top stars. Then he goes on Dark to wrestle Joe Alonzo and spends his off weeks from the TNT Championship Tournament wrestling Joey Janela, who is a challenge, sure, but not exactly Lance fucking Archer.
Archer has a match against QT Marshall, which plays into Archer’s quest to outright murder everyone Cody cares about, and is comparable to a fully grown rhinoceros fighting your grandmother. Archer turns apples into apple juice, and when Dr. Britt takes shoe-related matters into her own hands and lays out Brandi Rhodes, Jake Roberts can execute the next step in his plan. Archer can’t beat Brandi bloody and claw her to death, that’d be overkill … but they can bring back Jake’s old standby and humiliate her by planking over her unconscious body and letting a snake crawl over her. And where was Cody when his wife was out here five feet away from a guy who wants to kill him, an evil mastermind, a belligerent dentist, and a literal jungle predator? Not there. JR tries to explain that the locker rooms are far away from the ring because of social distancing, but bruh, even Goldberg with a police escort could’ve gotten out there in time to at least save face and run them off.
Anyway, I’m not saying Cody’s actually evil, necessarily, but I love that they’ve given us enough character development and played on observable character histories enough to let me think about it, and back it up. It’s hella preferable to the alternative, which is Cody losing to Archer on Dynamite four weeks in a row and then pinning him at Double or Nothing, and everyone being a cardboard cut-out.
All In: Wyatts Vs. Shield Forever
While we’re on the topic of reformed bad guys being hunted down and exposed by their old adversaries, here’s AEW World Champion Jon Moxley being attacked by The Exalted One Mr. Brodie Lee, breaker of chains and mother of dragons, after a match against Frankie Kazarian. The match is really good, actually, but the fact that the highlight video begins with the last move of the match should show you how much drama was involved. Mox going out here and doing his best to prop up guys who desperately need it deserves just as much credit as what Cody’s doing.
Anyway, I’m not sure what I find more entertaining … the fact that a former member of the Wyatt Family built his own cult, Gretchen from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt-style, and is using it to attack a former member of The Shield, or the fact that a guy with a Vince McMahon gimmick is out here making Jon Moxley’s life miserable. There’s meta, and then there’s meta.
Jobbers Of The Week
Nyla Rose figuratively and literally squashes 18-year old Kane student (no, seriously) Kenzie Paige in this week’s one women’s division match. Hikaru Shida makes concerned faces during the finish, and Kris Statlander makes an aggressive face and gesture afterward. It’s a delightful trouncing, but I sincerely wish the women’s division could get a story better than, “here is the champion, and the champion has a couple of challengers, I don’t know.” Even the NFL films video package about the division is basically just like, “here are the wrestlers!” They aren’t doing anything, though. Why is Britt Baker the only person in the division allowed to have character development?
All In: Golf Cat Attacks, Scissor Lift Moonsaults, And Ice Chest Transformations
Last and certainly not least we have the falls count anywhere street fight teaming Matt Hardy and the guy named after Matt Hardy’s old wrestling promotion against Le Sex Gods. It’s the perfect main event to celebrate the show’s return to Daily’s Place — not exactly a civic center full of fans, but we’ll take what we can get — and to play on the company’s obsession with having matches wander into that concourse. They fight in that thing so often it might as well be a selectable arena in the AEW video game.
Also of note, Matt Hardy does multiple character transformations during the match, going from Broken Matt to classic Hardy Boyz Matt by getting abandoned in the entrance tunnel, and transforming again into DAMASCUS because he got trapped in an ice chest. WONDERFUL. Le Sex Gods end up winning, however, because of the damned numbers game. Santana, Ortiz, and a boat-ready Jake Hager show up to make it a 5-on-2 attack, and Jericho’s able to powerbomb Omega on the top of the cart and pin him. The Young Bucks, per commentary, are at home due to COVID concerns. Hangman Page smartly bailed on this pandemic shit RIGHT AWAY.
Cody’s still chilling in the back, though. [shifty eyes]
All In: Top 10 comments Of The Week
TheGreenMiles
Cannot overstate how much I love AEW. It’s by & for people who love wrestling & pay attention to what makes it great.
The Voice of Raisin
Sammy Guevara graduated from the Prometheus School of Running Away From Things.
*Ding*
Mr. Bliss
Woj just tweeted that AEW is opening an investigation to see if Spears was using the airhorn to tell the heels when to swing.
dannibalcorpse
TRB
The one Dark Order guy with his shirt off is like when the enemies start to get harder in a 90s beat em up game
Statlander not wearing a space suit to protect herself at ringside feels like a swing & a miss
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
I just want to point out that Dr Britt Baker DMD got her shoe back. A national disaster was averted.
AddMayne
Spears really shouldn’t wear a shirt that says “HEATLESS”
Wendell Baugh
Britt gave Brandi a DDT before feeding her to Jake Roberts. Nice one, doc.
JayBone2
Pineapple Pete vs. Jericho
Additional Notes
AEW
Yes, I already miss Chris Jericho on commentary.
There should be an AEW Ben and Jerry’s flavor called “Chris Jeri-cone.”
The best commentary moment of the night is Excalibur laughing for real when Matt Hardy yelled “I NEED YOU TO DOC-UMENT THESE EVENTS” from the driver’s seat of a golf cart
I hope Darby Allin’s not depressed. I don’t want him to go FULL skeleton face. He already looks too much like the I Like Turtles kid.
MJF having a face mask in the same print as his one Burberry scarf is pretty funny
Also, MJF as the most (delightfully) derivative heel of a generation claiming to be the first of his kind is really entertaining. You can go far with Chris Jericho’s scarf, The Rock’s Nation of Domination haircut, and a prodigious talent for having no filter and saying the meanest possible thing you can think every second you’re awake
anyway, he’s great and I love his ending to Fight Club Zoom background
That does it for this week’s column. Thanks for reading about Dynamite! Leave us a comment below, give the column a share on social media, and make sure you’re back here next week for a stacked card featuring MJF, Brodie Lee vs. Christopher Daniels, Best Friends vs. Jurassic Express, Penelope Ford versus Hikaru Shida versus Kris Statlander versus Hateful Dentist, and the epic confrontation between Chris Jericho and Pineapple Pete. See you then.
The arrival of a new baby into the world should always be a joyful occasion.
But all too often, when babies are born with Down syndrome, the first thing that parents hear is “I’m sorry.”
Brittany Schiavone wants to change that, which is why she founded her nonprofit, Brittany’s Baskets of Hope where she makes and delivers baskets of presents and information to new parents of babies with Down syndrome.
“We’re trying to flip the script,” says Brittany’s mom, Susan Schiavone. “Instead of hearing ‘I’m Sorry,’ new parents are hearing ‘Congratulations!'”
“I give them hope,” says Brittany. “I give them hope and joy and happiness for their child.”
Brittany first got the idea for giving presents to newborns with Down syndrome after watching a video about people helping families and babies on her break at work. So, she went home and declared to her parents that she wanted to do something similar. She wanted to give families and newborns presents. And she wanted to tell the moms that it’s going to be okay.
Before long, this idea transformed from an ambitious idea to a fully operational nonprofit that sends baskets to new parents in all 50 states, thanks in part to Brittany’s awesome family that rallied around her to help make her dream a reality.
Each basket is carefully put together to include baby essentials, like pacifiers, socks and bibs, information for the parents (including a book), onesies with “Down Right Perfect” on the front, and hand-knit blankets, hats and booties.
So far, Brittany has made and sent over 950 baskets. Volunteers all over the country help hand-knit gifts or donate money to help her create each of her very special baskets. And Brittany’s dedication to her cause is why she was chosen as L’Oréal Paris’ 2019 Women of Worth Honorees.
The babies born in the Long Island area also get something else with their baskets too: a visit from Brittany.
Brittany and her mom hand-deliver the baskets to local babies and they stay for a little while to visit.
“It is my favorite thing to see the babies and hold the babies and talk to the parents all about it,” says Brittany. “I try to give them hope…Down syndrome babies can do anything. Really, really anything.”
“It really warms my heart to see Brittany interact with these babies, interact with the families [and] tell her story” Susan says. “She’s very upfront and will tell you she has a great life.”
“We call her the baby whisperer,” she continues. “It’s the most fun seeing Brittany holding these tiny infants and sometimes, no matter how fussy or squiggly they are, they kind of recognize the connection with Brittany, we think. She’s very good at calming them and making them smile and giggle.”
These baskets and visits mean a lot to the new parents.
Melissa and Ryan Lucas were the first parents that Brittany delivered a basket to after their daughter, Maeve, was born with Down syndrome.
“They came and she brought this welcome basket that had a bottle and it had some little clothes for the baby,” says Melissa. “There were tears that just rolled down my face because I felt like life was going to be okay.”
“Meeting Brittany and having her come to our home and deliver a basket truly felt like someone has our back,” says Ryan.
And that’s exactly the power of Brittany’s Baskets of Hope: it’s a way of celebrating these babies and reminding the parents that they’re not alone. They’re joining a supportive community that has their back.
Brittany is one of 10 incredible women who were chosen to be a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth Honorees in 2019 because of the amazing work they do every day.
The L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth program was started in 2006 as a way of celebrating women like her who are doing wonderful volunteer or philanthropy work in their communities. Each honoree receives a $10,000 grant for their charitable cause and one honoree, chosen by public vote, receives an additional $25,000. Past honorees have included surgeons doing pro-bono surgeries for people in need, women supporting human trafficking victims, advocates for LGBTQ teens and more.
If you know a woman doing amazing things in her community, go to womenofworth.com to nominate her now. Nominations are open until June 30th.
Fans of the Assassin’s Creed series have been eagerly anticipating the next installment in the franchise since 2018, when Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was released to widespread praise. It’s been 13 years since the original AC game came out, and a rabid fanbase has followed it every step of the way.
Last week, fans finally got a glimpse into the next game when Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was unveiled. This iteration is one that fans have been asking for since the early days of the franchise — you will finally get to play as Vikings, and it looks just as cool as everyone wanted it to be.
While cinematic trailers are cool, what everyone really wanted to see was the gameplay. And on Thursday, fans were given a brief glimpse into what that may look like come launch, which is currently slated for Q4 of 2020. A gameplay trailer was shown during the Xbox Series X event, and while it was merely 90 seconds, we were again brought into the world in which Valhalla will occur.
The game unsurprisingly looks gorgeous — which you would expect from what should be a next gen release — but it doesn’t give enough of a glimpse into what gameplay will actually look like. It does look like you may have access to boats again, a feature that fans of the series have been in love with since Black Flag and the popular “Eagle vision” where you take over a literal Eagle to explore the world through an aerial view appears to be returning as well, but we do not know for sure.
The entirety of the trailer uses quick shots of what looks like gameplay as it smash cuts away to other potential features. It all looks excellent, but it’s unfortunate we can’t get a little more time to see what it will inevitably look like. That said, I don’t doubt that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be another fantastic addition to the series. Odyssey and Origins were both huge hits among fans and seen as a much-needed breath of fresh air into the franchise. Valhalla should take what those two did well and master it.
Another week with a stacked offering of the best new hip-hop albums. As the COVID-19 quarantine continues, artists have been busier than ever, with fewer distractions to keep them from getting in the studio. Of course, with the music industry more connected than ever thanks to social media and streaming, the unforeseen circumstances that would have crippled the supply chain before are only minor speed bumps on the way to dropping albums, EPs, and mixtapes. While some big-name artists hold off in the hopes of utilizing national tours to maximize their profits, up-and-coming and indie artists art using the opportunity to drop their latest work and snap up some market share while potential fans have free time between marquee material. Case in point, the best new hip-hop albums dropping this week include projects from established underground vets Bishop Nehru, Lil Durk, Little Simz, and Nav, while up-and-coming artists Jean Deaux, Lil Tjay, and Ric Wilson share some profile-boosting releases of their own.
At just 23 years old, this New Yorker is already a mainstay on the city’s independent rap scene, with a collaborative project with MF Doom under his belt. My Disregarded Thoughts is Bishop’s first full-length project since 2018’s Elevators. Split into two acts, Nehru calls this is most eccentric project yet.
Jean Deaux — Watch This!
Chicago rapper Jean Deaux has bounced about from R&B to straight-up rap and her latest EP finds her firmly in the latter mode for six tracks of swaggering rhymes and uptempo beats. It also has two features that perfectly highlight Jean’s style: Yung Baby Tate and Saba, who reflect her slick lyricism and her unapologetic femininity.
Lil Durk — Just ‘Cause Y’all Waited 2
Lil Durk has been one of most consistent rappers from the Windy City, releasing at least one project in each of the last nine years, with the most recent one, Love Songs 4 The Streets 2 dropping in 2019. The latest, which features Gunna, Lil Baby, Polo G, and G Herbo, is another display of Durk’s mashup of melodic sensibilities and drill-style authenticity — that is, if his latest track, “3 Headed GOAT,” is any indication.
Lil Tjay — State Of Emergency
After celebrating his 19th birthday — and causing controversy with his antics all the way — New York’s Lil Tjay follows up his breakout debut album, True 2 Myself, with the versatile State Of Emergency mixtape. Although I criticized his debut for being too one-note last year, his new one splits the difference between the singsong style pioneered by fellow Uptown native A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and Brooklyn’s drill adherents like Fivio Foreign, Pop Smoke, and Sheff G — all of whom appear on this tape.
Little Simz — Drop 6
A surprise drop from the London native, Drop 6 features five songs written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the sixth EP of Simz’s Age 101: DROP series, following her 2019 release of the full-length Grey Area.
Nav — Good Intentions
The Torontonian producer and rapper picks up where he left off with last year’s Bad Habits. After launching the promotion for this album in earnest with his hit song “Turks” featuring Travis Scott and Gunna, fans have plenty to look forward to. Featuring appearances from Future, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, Pop Smoke, Don Toliver, and Lil Durk, Good Intentions is a star-studded affair to showcase Nav’s extensive contact list and polished production sensibilities.
Ric Wilson and Terrace Martin — They Call Me Disco
A collaborative effort between emerging Chicago rapper Ric Wilson and veteran Los Angeles jazz revivalist Terrace Martin, They Call Me Disco is a breath of fresh air for anyone looking for a departure from the trap-focused beats and the boom bap-styled alternatives that dominate hip-hop’s modern landscape.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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