St. Patrick's Day Slam is a special episode of the weekly television series, AEW Dynamite, produced by All Elite Wrestling. It was held on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 at Daily's Palace in Jacksonville, Florida.
Highlights from this show include the first on-air interview with Christian Cage after signing with AEW, Jade Cargill's singles debut, the fallout from MJF's new faction laying waste to the Inner Circle to close out last week's show, and the first ever AEW women's main event between Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. against Thunder Rosa in an unsanctioned lights out match.
Match Results:
Cody Rhodes (w/ Arn Anderson) def. Penta El Zero Miedo
It goes back and forth a bit until Pentagon starts targeting Cody's ailing shoulder. He motions for his signature "arm breaking" spot from Lucha Underground, but Cody manages to get out of position and steals the win from right from underneath Penta's nose since he was milking it for so long. Pentagon immediately assaults him post-match until the Nightmare Family (namely Arn, Dustin, and the Gunn Club) come running out for the save. Pentagon SLOWLY walks away without the babyfaces giving chase and even passes by QT Marshall on the ramp, causing the rest of the Nightmare Family members to demand what took him so long. It seems like they are continuin this issue of desention between QT and the rest of the Nightmare Family members as he even turned his back on his former students in the group on last week's broadcast. Are they seriously thinking that QT could be a breakout heel at this point against the rest of the Nightmare Family? Sounds like a complete waste of time to me.
Then again, this is the same company that gave the Bucks' childhood friend a winning streak on Dark and job working for AEW Games with Kenny Omega...
Jade Cargill wins a quick squash vs. Dani Jordan
The best part of this were the tweets back and forth from them on Twitter all morning leading up to this match, only for Dani to tweet later that evening, asking "Did I win?" following her abrupt loss.
This is exactly what it needed to be, short, sweet and to the point with Jade going over. I have to say that Jade's kicks look odd as hell. Maybe she needs to work on that a bit more. Otherwise, I'm fine with how she's coming along.
New Faction Promo
This was exactly what it needed to be following this new faction, what Tully Blanchard dubs, "The Pinnacle" during his promo. Tully did this masterfully well to lay out the groundwork for this promo and handed it off to MJF, who knocked it out of the park with a homerun. He explains that he was biding his time working underneath Jericho until he had the perfect opportunity and knocked down the entire Inner Circle like bowling pins. The Pinnacle declares themselves as the most powerful faction in AEW.
No arguments from me when the not-so-Bullet Club or BTE (Being The Elite) guys are in disarray, the Nightmare Family is a bigger clusterfuck of talent than Master P and his No Limit Soldiers in WCW, and the Dark Order is still pretty much direction-less following the untimely demise of Brodie Lee. No disrespect to Brodie Lee, but were the Dark Order EVER a powerful stable outside of that hot minute when Brodie Lee killed Cody, Brandi, and majority of the Nightmare Family to win the TNT Championship? Oh yeah... let's not forget Hardy Inc., who's another clusterfuck of talent that we'll get into with the next match.
I'm really anxious to see where this stable ends up in the next year or two. Hopefully not down the same route of bad comedy and show toons that the Inner Circle devolved into. A lot of people seem to be leaning towards the idea that AEW could be leading this feud between the Pinnacle and the Inner Circle into that Blood & Guts (AEW's version of War Games) match that never happened between the BTE guys and Inner Circle last year amongst COVID-19 concerns and safety protocols. I wouldn't be opposed to that, but the Pinnacle shouldn't be losing that match either.
Hardy Inc. def. Jurassic Express and Bear Country
I said it while livetweeting during the show last night and I'll repeat myself here too. Hardy Inc. should be called "Team Clusterfuck" from the random assortment of talent that AEW clearly has no idea what to do with on a regular basis that they have lumped up together within Hardy's "acquisitions" of talent to hoard around and do his bidding. Bear Country comes across to me as a similar team in the vein of War Machine (Hanson and Rowe) from Ring of Honor before they went to WWE and became the War Raiders/Viking Raiders.
I didn't get why they were letting Marko Stunt get so much offense in. At least everyone bumped like crazy for Luchasaurus, who is admittedly getting rather stale now that the honeymoon period is over for this company. He does those kicks to his moonsault in every match now to the point where it's not even special anymore.
Matt Hardy stole the win for his team after a bit of showboating, but it's like whatever at this point. Sure, Hardy Inc. needs wins for those losers that he has aligned with him, but is really a win when no one really cares about anyone in this match?
Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley def. Good Brothers
I think Moxley works better in a tag team than he does as singles talent if you ask me. This way he can do his signature spots while the heels feed for him off the hot tag(s). Kingston played the part of the babyface fighting from underneath masterfully here. By the end of the match and during the post-match attack though, he ate far too much abuse from the heels without getting anything in. They hit him with what, 2-3 Magic Killers, before this was all said and done?
I couldn't care any less about the Young Bucks and the rest of the former Bullet Club members having a rift down the middle of their not-so-happy relationship. Why should this matter when the Bucks act like douchebag heels 24/7 regardless if they are heels or babyfaces anyway?
Sting and Darby Allin Interview
I can't speak for anyone else but I'm flat out sick and tired of these Tony Schiavone interviews with Sting that get interrupted week to week. It's been the same goddamn thing for roughly THREE months in a row now. You can't tell me that this is the only material that they could cook up for this guy to do on a week to week basis.
As for the "interview" if you can even call it that, I still don't know what the fuck that they are doing with Lance Archer. One week, he's a babyface and then on another, he's a heel. I'm sick of caring at this point, yet people complained about The Big Show turning so much. Well, Archer is on his way to follow in Big Show's footsteps in that regard.
The most headscratching thing about this interview was Brian Cage addressing Sting and talking about how much he respects him after their match at Revolution two weeks ago. It comes across as Cage is going babyface so much to the point that even Taz utters "What the hell are you doing!?" while the rest of Team Taz looks on confused. Cage merely walks off and that's the end of this.
Should they really be trying to split this group up NOW? I really don't get how this company thinks in terms of their storylines and angles sometimes. They spent the better part of a year fucking up Brian Cage in terms of storylines and feuds, only for a random light bulb to go off with the idea of turning him babyface? You can't tell me that this guy isn't reconsidering that decision to leave IMPACT last year at this point from how much AEW has mishandled him.
Singles Match
Rey Fenix (w/ PAC) def. Angelico (w/ Jack Evans)
This was one of the rare occasions where you didn't miss anything of note if you decided to fast-forward through a Rey Fenix match. I don't get why this match was so far into this card and served as essentially a nothing match to serve as filler before the main event.
Unsanctioned Lights Out Match
Thunder Rosa def. Britt Baker (w/ Rebel)
Simply put, this match was for AEW's women's division that the No Mas Match in Lucha Underground between Mariposa (Cheerleader Melissa) and Sexy Star (despite what you may think of her currently after the fact...) was for that division at the time. It is going to put more eyeballs onto AEW's women's division that it desperately needs while at the same time, elevating both Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker. The only other noteworthy Britt Baker match in AEW prior to this was her match where Hikaru Shida broke her nose roughly a year ago. Ironic that she was left with a crimson mask by the time that was all said and done too. Britt Baker seems to thrive in these matches where almost any other female performer would throw in the towel. My only concern here is that this doesn't give AEW or any other promotion for that matter, the excuse that the only way women's matches are going to draw high ratings is to toss the women into a bloodbath. This is false. A strong, compelling narrative that fans can invest into will do the exact same thing. You don't have to have these women shorten their careers by making this into a trend.
As for this match itself, there were some great spots in here, but my biggest knock against this match was it would have meant a lot more if these women would take a moment and sell the punishment being inflicted upon all of them. Britt Baker was lucky to have an excellent worker like Thunder Rosa to lead her throughout a match like this, but there were multiple points during this match where I could do nothing but shake my head at the women completely no selling the punishment that they were putting their bodies through here. I don't blame the women for this, but it kills a lot of these hardcore matches for me when guys and gals completely no sell the superplex spot onto a stack of chairs. Like c'mon... It wouldn't have killed Britt Baker to sell the ladder being kicked into her face for a few more moments when she had blood pouring down her face for an added effect. They completely no sold the spot onto the thumbtacks just to rush through the spot off the ring apron for the finish too. (Laughs) Why can't some of these people sell like death like how Reba (or Rebel) sold that table bump towards the end?
All that being said, I applaud the ladies for how hard they worked here. By the time it was all said and done, both of these women came across as battle-tested warriors, no matter what you may think of them. In that regard, it was a job well done for keeping many fans invested in the high stakes of a match like this from bell to bell.
Closing Thoughts:
The praise for this show's main event seems to be unamious in terms of the positive reception of the ladies in that spot. They went above and beyond to deliver in that regard, but I can't help thinking that so many people were blown away by that match when the bar for the AEW Women's Division has been so low to begin with until excellent workers like Thunder Rosa, Leyla Hirsh, and Serena Deeb came along. Outside of those names, AEW's women's division is full of women who have good, consistent workers who don't embarrass themselves to others who are obviously not ready to be performing week-to-week on live television. To be fair, WWE is no stranger to putting their women out there to sink or swim either. If Thunder Rosa wasn't a star tonight then her star shown even brighter after this match. Britt Baker definitely deserved her share of that too, especially with the fact that Rosa has to return back to NWA this weekend for their PPV and their following TV tapings for new episodes of NWA Powerrr finally returning. Britt proved that she was more than a chicken shit heel here and showed that she could take her share of abuse while dishing it back out too.
I don't necessarily agree with a lot of other critiques of this show, saying that this main event was the only thing worth watching tonight. Jade Cargill continues to impress with her singles match debut and I thought the formal induction to The Pinnacle with Tully and MJF cutting promos to put the new faction over was well worth the time. Everything else was your run of the mill episode of what we've come to expect on Dynamite on most weeks. I honestly still don't get why they went out of their way to bill this as a "special" episode of Dynamite just for St. Patrick's Day when there was only one marquee match.
AEW Revolution (2021) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on March 7, 2021 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, while the Street Fight was produced as a cinematic match and was broadcast pre-recorded at an undisclosed location. It was the second event in the Revolution chronology and was AEW's first PPV event held on a Sunday.
The Buy-In Kick-Off: Tag Team Match Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. and Maki Itoh (with Rebel) def. Riho and Thunder Rosa
This ended the recaps and video packages on the preshow with Britt Baker announcing the surprise appearance of Maki Itoh making her debut stateside in an AEW ring to fill in for the "injured" Rebel. This match wasn't more than your run of the mill women's match you would find on a typical week of Dynamite. Rebel would lend the assist with one of her crutches to aid the heels in a win. This match merely served to further the Thunder Rosa vs. Britt Baker feud - something the Women's Title Eliminator should have done. In all due respect to Ryo Mizunami and Nyla Rose, but Britt Baker and/or Thunder Rosa should have won that tournament. Allowing Shida to select and book her own challengers is booking malpractice at this point where common sense booking should have prevailed.
The only positive to come out of this is that it seems we're getting a resolution to this feud between Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker in a non-sanctioned main event on the 3/17/21 episode of Dynamite, a first for the ladies of AEW. I wouldn't be surprised if Baker goes over there either, especially since Rosa has to wind down on her appearances with the NWA starting tapings after their upcoming restart PPV later this month.
Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) def. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho and MJF) (with Wardlow)
What can I say here about this? It's a Young Bucks tag team match. It's either you love the dozens of spots, dives, and flips with even more near-falls/kickouts or you just don't like it at all. The only thing that really blew me away about this match was that the Bucks found a way to work with Jericho throughout the entire match to hide any signs that his out of shape ass was gassed within the first 5-10 minutes. MJF took majority of the abuse from the Bucks' offense here, but there wasn't a single moment where I was convinced that MJF and Jericho were going over, despite some outside interference from Wardlow. Jericho ended up eating the Meltzer Driver in the end, followed by the pin to allow the Bucks to retain - as he should in this situation. Everything Jericho has done since the Orange Cassidy feud has been absolutely a waste of his talents, especially when he came into this company at the start as the highest profile name on the entire roster. Now he's not even shadow of his former glory within the span of the past year.
Later in the show, Jericho and MJF had a post-match interview where they announced that there will be a "War Council" meeting of the Inner Circle to discuss some much needed changes to the faction on the upcoming episode of Dynamite. Anyone with two functioning eyes could see that MJF was staring a hole through Jericho - making it more than obvious that he's going to perform a hostile takeover of the group.
Casino Tag Team Royale for a future AEW World Tag Team Championship match Rey Fénix (representing Death Triangle) won by last eliminating Jungle Boy (representing Jurassic Express)
Two tag teams started the match. Every 90 seconds, a new team entered. A team was eliminated when both competitors of the team were thrown over the top rope and both feet hit the floor. The match continued until there was only one competitor or team remaining.
Boy was this match a carnival act until the final two to three teams came out. I couldn't help but laugh at the Dark Order having not one but four separate entries into this match, only to still walk away with a loss. The final moments between Death Triangle and Jungle Boy was great though and the true highlight of this entire affair.
That spot that I'm sure everyone under the sun has shared of Evil Uno overselling the hell out of that hurracanrana out of the ring from Marko Stunt should have had him laughed out of any locker room. I didn't understand why Dustin Rhodes was mad at QT Marshall for tossing out the Gunn Club. Everyone is in this match trying to fucking win and it's everyone for themselves, Nightmare Family members or not. Glad to see that they haven't lost the narrative on that storyline about if SCU lost another tag team match (non-battle royal) that they would split up for good. Ironic that they haven't had any matches on Dynamite. Instead, they have been regulated to Dark for the last few months. That's sad that the storyline/angle isn't getting more shine on TNT.
Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship
Hikaru Shida (c) def. Ryo Mizunami
This wasn't a bad match. It just began to drag on a bit towards the end where both Shida and Mizunami did far too many near-falls for my taste. How many of these title matches have we seen at this point where Shida has to hit that Shining Wizard/Flying Knee that she does at least 2-5 times before she puts her opponent down? I have honestly lost count myself personally.
Shida girl, we love you but it's time to retire that Final Fantasy VII Remake-inspired ring gear and come out with something else.
Tag Team Match
Miro and Kip Sabian (with Penelope Ford) def. Best Friends (Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor) by submission
This was a complete waste of time. While I applaud Miro for his renewed aggression, this was a match that could have been on the Buy-In or on Dynamite the prior or following week - if anyone cared enough about it. I'm more shocked that they are continuing with this partnership between Miro and Kip Sabian after Kip and Penelope got married. I get that all five of these people don't have anything else going on, but you can't tell me that they couldn't find anything else for these people to be doing. Miro should be ripping guys apart on that roster like a phone book instead of doing this lame Twitch gamer/streamer feud with Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy. It's a waste of talent between everyone involved.
Big Money Match
Winner receives the loser's 2021 first-quarter earnings.
"Hangman" Adam Page def. "Big Money" Matt Hardy
Whether it's "Broken", "Woken", or "Big Money" Matt Hardy, it seems like none of these schizophrenic gimmick changes for Matt Hardy are working. It's hilarious to me that the same people who are raving about this "Big Money" Matt Hardy gimmick were some of the same people who were laughing at it when he did the same thing in IMPACT Wrestling. Now it just seems like he's playing the part of a sleezy business manager, taking advantage of the talents that he employs. Much like the match before it, this was another nothing match that could have been on the episode of Dynamite prior or after this PPV or simply another match on the Buy-In earlier.
The only positives to come out of this match was a decisive win for Adam Page and potential for some hilarious segments featuring Page and the members of the Dark Order that he has befriended spending Matt Hardy's first-quarter earnings.
Face of the Revolution Ladder Match for a future AEW TNT Championship match
Scorpio Sky def. Cody Rhodes (with Arn Anderson), Penta El Zero Miedo, Lance Archer (with Jake Roberts), Max Caster, and Ethan Page
I can't say that I was too surprised to see Ethan Page as the mystery final entrant in this match. He left IMPACT Wrestling a few months ago in huff after whining about how his final feud against the Karate Man didn't go as he imagined it, especially when people shit all over the "special effects" in that Mortal Kombat-inspired clusterfuck. I don't see how he's going to stand out on this roster when people were calling him discount/Great Value Brand MJF when he was in IMPACT. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Everything in this match was skewed towards Scorpio Sky winning it. He was the only one who was constantly climbing up the ladder and nearly pulling down the "brass ring" - yet another painful WWE "cute" jab/insider reference - at every opportunity. There were some interesting spots to be had here, but let's be realistic here for a moment and ask this question. Is there anything left in these matches to do that hasn't been done to death already?
I have to wonder exactly how "hurt" is Cody's shoulder when he's still going all in like this in matches, especially in a punishing match type such as this. Shouldn't he be gearing up to take some time off to be with his wife Brandi for the birth of their first child? But whatever, it's his life after all.
Street Fight
Darby Allin and Sting def. Team Taz (Brian Cage and Ricky Starks) (with Hook and Powerhouse Hobbs)
Right off the bat, the biggest thing that stuck out about this match was that it was shot like a segment in Lucha Underground. From what I have read after the fact, Darby Allin was putting his film editing talents to use here and tailored the match his liking on the cutting room floor. I thought it was fucking stupid that the commentary team were talking over this match as if it was live, when it was clearly taped in advance. If I had paid to see this event live, I would have been royally pissed off to see that this was taped when AEW made no announcement that Sting wasn't wrestling live on this show.
Speaking of Sting, I thought his weaknesses and shortcomings were hidden well here. This match was for him what the Boneyard Match was for The Undertaker last year against AJ Styles. Ricky Starks played the role that Styles did with Taker, making sure to take care of the Legend every step of the way and made sure he looked like a million bucks. Between everyone playing to their strengths and the visual presentation of this match, it easily made for the best thing on this entire PPV in my honest opinion. That's surprising too as one would think that people would be sick of cinematic matches after WWE abused them over the past year.
Between getting their asses kicked for two weeks in a row prior to this PPV and losing here, I can't see how anyone believes that Team Taz has any street credibility left in any shape nor form. Their entire team came down to lay waste to Darby and the 60+ year old Sting and still couldn't get the job done. I can't knock AEW on the decision to make Sting and Darby go over as that made the most logical sense, especially for Sting's first official match back in over 5 years. All that I'm saying is that Team Taz need to start racking up some wins after this is all said and done. This should be a group of killers, not guys who keep running from a 60+ year old man every week like a bunch of cowards.
Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch for the AEW World Championship
Kenny Omega (c) (with Don Callis) def. Jon Moxley
When it comes to these "deathmatches" between Moxley and Omega, I haven't been a fan of not a single one of their matches between the two of them. This is another that adds to that list. I don't think they have good chemistry together and I don't feel like neither man compliments the other's fighting style to both of their detriment. I did appreciate the small attentions to detail throughout this match as there were explosions that were triggered each time someone was thrown into the barb wire ropes or when someone went through the tables covered in barb wire at ringside.
Sadly, the only thing that everyone will remember this match and this entire PPV for is how it ended. After Omega retained the title after an assist from the Good Brothers, they beat the holy hell out of Moxley and leave him for dead in the middle of the ring as the timer is counting down for the timed explosion to destroy the ring. Eddie Kingston (Moxley's former best friend) ran out and dove on top of Moxley, covering him up with his own body while covering his own head like a tactical nuke is about to go off.
At least we know that Kingston still cares, despite how stupid this was. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to hear how pissed him and Moxley were when the explosion was a dud.
The timer reaches zero and absolutely nothing goes off.
As a result, Kingston looks like a complete dumbass for sitting in the ring selling the "explosion" as the show faded to black with the medical personnel tending to him like he took a bullet for Moxley. Meanwhile, no one's tending to Moxley, who is a bloody mess as a result of this match and the post-match attack from the Good Brothers.
What makes this situation pathetic is that Tony Khan tried to sell it off as "Kenny Omega and Don Callis' poorly constructed death trap designed in crayons" when this is a company that never attempts to maintain any sort of kayfabe/believability when it comes to their storylines. The only thing they had to do was to own up that they fucked up and we'll try to do better next time. It's not hard. People make mistakes; nobody's perfect. Instead, AEW gave this piss poor excuse to their audience like everyone watching this show is as stupid as how WWE treats their "fans" from week to week.
Closing Thoughts
Like previously mentioned, the only thing that people are going to remember from this show is the hilariously awful ending to this PPV after they hyped up the spectacle of an exploding barbed wire deathmatch to no end. Imagine how Onida has to be feeling after they paid him to promote that crap...
Christian Cage is now All Elite.
The ending of this show aside, I really felt sorry for Christian Cage. He came out without any fanfare, despite the fact I know I marked out when I was watching live and heard his old TNA theme (at least a remix of it anyway) playing over the speakers when he unceremoniously walked down to the ring, signed the contract and left without saying a single word. They couldn't cut time from any of these matches to give him like 5-10 minutes of time to speak to the live crowd? I mean, well shit. Thanks for comin', I guess.
Facts.
I don't blame him for people being disappointed and/or underwhelmed by his debut either. That's all on AEW sending Paul Wight out there saying he's Hall of Fame worthy, high-profile talent. Of course people's minds went into overdrive thinking on the levels of CM Punk or Brock Lesnar signing with them. Christian Cage's signing didn't go over as badly like the "fart in church" like the ending of this PPV, but AEW's typical means of overhyping their new signings was to their own detriment here. It would have made a bigger impact if they didn't say anything and Christian just showed up as a surprise in the middle of this PPV to sign his contract.
There were some decent matches on this card, but majority of this show was stuff that could have been saved for Dynamite if we're perfectly honest. I do applaud them for making Sting's in-ring return for the first time in five years a sight to behold.
AEW Dynamite on TNT
(3/10/21)
Match Results:
“Hijo del Fuego” Rey Fenix (3-2 singles) w/PAC def. Matt Jackson (0-0 singles) w/Nick Jackson
Much like a lot of the Young Bucks' matches, you can toss the Lucha Bros.' matches into the same category of either you're going to love it or hate it. It's going to be fast-paced with a lot of high-spots, flips, dives, and near-falls with a lot of it not making much sense, but it's cool to look at. That's not a knock against those guys as they do a lot of spectacular shit in these matches, especially Fenix, but sometimes I wish they would slow it down and try to put a sensible, cohesive match together someday.
It drives me nuts too because I know Fenix is capable of it when he had logical matches in Lucha Underground that weren't all high spots. He can slow down and work smarter too. It's just that AEW's style allows these guys to work without any rules or logic behind a lot of these matches.
Backstage, Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley ATTEMPT to explain what happened at the end of Revolution.
I could buy into Kingston's promo and this pretty much solidified the babyface turn for him in my eyes. Thank goodness too as I thought he was rotting away being associated with The Butcher, The Blade, and The Bunny. The only thing that I could knock in this great promo from both guys is that they had to make that snide remark against IMPACT (a company that they are working with no less) by saying that they probably paid for the bomb.
“The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes w/Arn Anderson def. Seth Gargis
This match ends faster than a hiccup before Cody is interrupted by Pentagon (dressed to the nines in a sharp business suit in the audience with a translator) challenging him to a match next week on Dynamite. Sure, whatever, I'm game for this despite feeling like this feud came out of nowhere.
I have NO idea what Lance Archer and Jake Roberts were talking about when they interrupted Sting. If they are going for a Sting/Lance program then my vote is on "all kinds of no". Let Sting work with someone else instead of another big guy that could probably put him on the shelf for good after doing something stupid in the ring.
This company has no fucking idea on what to do with Lance Archer. Some weeks he's in the right place and right match across the ring with the right opponent then another week he's running out, beating up random guys for no reason. For Christ's sake, pick ONE program for him and see it to its end instead of more of this schizophrenic booking.
“All Ego” Ethan Page def. Lee Johnson
The audio issues continued through the entrances and the first few minutes of the match and are fixed when they come back from break.
The audio issues were too distracting from whatever NBA game that was piping through so I was more paying attention to NXT at this point.
I did laugh at Adam Page showing up on the lawn mower that he bought with Matt Hardy's money before the Dark Order rode on that thing with him.
Christian Cage is supposed to be coming out for a promo but Kenny Omega, The Good Brothers and Don Callis come out instead.
The heels try to ham it up as the explosion at the end of Revolution went all according to plan, all while making fun of Kingston and Moxley. Omega even had the face palm-worthy line of the week, "69 me, Don!" before they reenacted the finish of that PPV to cringe-inducing results as they dry humped each other in a 69 position while the overhead cameras shot all of this. I cannot fathom how anyone is behind Kenny Omega as a heel. He's not a good heel. He's one of those go-away and get the fuck off my television level heels in the vein of Jinder Mahal. Yes, I went there. Say what you will about Omega's in-ring ability, but him on the microphone isn't it at all. Here's another thing that blatantly stupid about this: they have the cinematography eye and technical knowledge to frame this well and do something as extravagant as the cinematic match between Sting and Darby against Team Taz at Revolution, but they fuck up money shots during spots ALL THE FUCKING TIME on these shows. Jesus Christ, get your priorities in order.
I felt this segment took away all of the stink that Kingston and Moxley took off of the finish of Revolution at the start of the show, only to remind people how fucking stupid it was when Kingston and Moxley had already remedied that situation for the most part.
The whole segment ended with Moxley and Kingston brawling off screen with the Good Brothers while Christian Cage sneaked into the ring to size up Kenny Omega. It seems like they are teasing this to be Cage's first program and I don't know why they are setting him up for failure right off the bat.
If you asked me a few weeks ago, I would have laughed off the Dixie Carter and TNA/IMPACT Wrestling comparisons from about 15 years ago, but right now, Tony Khan is running his company almost in a mirror image to that train wreck. At least Dixie brought in Sting and Christian into her company when they weren't nearing the end of their mileage in terms of their name value and what they could offer to this young talent roster. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Christian gets to have a last run in the limelight on his own terms - outside of the shadow of Edge and in a company that appreciates and knows how much his talents are worth. I'm just not a fan of immediately setting him up for failure in this feud for the AEW World title right off the bat. I don't understand why AEW insists on feeding guys to their champions right off the bat, only to "rehabilitate" them later then wonder why they aren't over anymore. After they had that first big loss at the title, how can you expect fans to still care about them after the fact? Unless you're already big fans of said talent(s), then it's hard to invest into that character when you see them lose at the first big opportunity. It's the same mistake that WWE does time and time again with their 50/50 booking that people criticize them for, yet wonder why no one is getting over today.
Watching the start of this match live, I couldn't facepalm and shake my head any harder than I did when the other girls involved into this match erupted into a brawl while Maki Itoh stood on the stage and sung her entire entrance routine. Shida came up onto the stage to intervene, only for Maki to give her the most polite, gentle mic shot I have ever seen in wrestling while Shida was left selling it like she got shot. Holy fucking shit this was stupid.
At this point, I just don't fucking get it about the grand fascination with Maki Itoh outside of she dresses like she's the wrestling equivalent to Misa Amane from Death Note. I'm curious to see how many people catch that reference...
Matt Hardy says that Adam Page stole from him but he has more than enough money to sustain their business through April 1. Page says he is adding a new addition to their group and introduces The Butcher and The Blade. He says they are going to destroy The Dark Order.
TNT Championship Match
Darby Allin (c) def. Scorpio Sky
Sky cashes in his big brass donut ring tonight for a shot at the TNT Championship. Once again, Sky falls short, only to go berserk following the loss, signaling his heel turn. If his demeanor during his guest commentary spot last week on Dynamite were any clue to go by then this turn shouldn't have been much of a surprise. It's a welcome change too because we've Sky challenge for the TNT title time and time again, only to have it slip between his fingers each and every time.
I do want to applaud Darby and Sky for having the best match on this entire show. They had their high spots and dives here, but it wasn't just all spots like the opener. Darby got "hurt" early on into the match and Sky sunk his teeth into the wound like any predator should to work it throughout the entire match. This made for a great narrative from bell to bell here. While I don't necessarily want to see guys work a body part in every match, I do would like to see matches make sense in a narrative sense instead of coming across as entirely chaotic.
The Inner Circle's "War Council" meeting in-ring to close out the show
The Inner Circle comes out down to the ring for their “War Council.” Everything is skewed towards MJF turning the Inner Circle's members against Chris Jericho, despite Sammy Guevara's warnings, only to swerve everyone that MJF's scheming has backfired with the entire Inner Circle reunited against him. That turns into a swerve onto a swerve (or rather a hat on a hat in terms of execution) when MJF reveals that he has been recruiting the talents to make his own faction to take out the Inner Circle right under their noses. That's when they are all laid out by FTR (w/ Tully Blanchard), Shawn Spears, and Wardlow. On paper this seems like a good idea with MJF leading his own Four Horseman-like faction, but Spears is the odd man out. Don't get me wrong. I raved about Spears when he was Tye Dillinger in NXT, but everything he did on the main roster of WWE (or lack of thereof...) to the sheer nothingness he's done in AEW since it's inception - outside of legitimately busting open the back of Cody's head with that botched chair shot - hasn't done anything for me or anyone else to make him feel deserving of this spot within this faction. They had already planted the seeds for Adam Page to be part of this group when they were toasting together with Arn Anderson nodding approvingly during FTR's contract signing. That felt like a wasted opportunity.
Who knows, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself and Adam Page will be recruited for this faction down the road? This seems like the perfect position for Wardlow to be in for whenever he breaks off as a singles star after splitting away from MJF - in the same vein as Batista in Evolution.
On a positive note, I'm glad that they went with MJF to lead this faction instead of Cody as how it seemed like they were leaning towards initially. I think Cody realized that he would definitely end up with the Jeff Jarrett (from the start of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling) comparisons if he ended up being the leader of a faction with the wealth of potential like this.
Standing together, this group doesn't look too bad TBH...
Despite the awkward execution, I liked this ending to Dynamite this week with this new faction setting the stage for what is to come. Rumors of the spoilers to the upcoming episode of Dynamite for 3/17/21 says that they are calling this faction "The Pinnacle" and I really hope they don't go with that name. I liked the name that FTR went with when they had that toast with Adam Page last year - "The Mid-Atlantic". It would be a clever throwback to the territory days.
Note: As of this posting (3/18/21), "The Pinnacle" is the name that they actually went with, so yeah...
Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprise their respective roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the film series, while Debra Jo Rupp, Fred Melamed, Kathryn Hahn, Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Evan Peters also star. By September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a number of limited series for Disney+ centered on supporting characters from the MCU films such as Wanda and Vision, with Olsen and Bettany returning. Schaeffer was hired in January 2019, the series was officially announced that April, and Shakman joined in August. The series pays homage to past sitcoms, with Wanda and Vision living in a reality created by the former that takes them through different decades of television tropes. Filming began in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2019, before production halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in Los Angeles in September 2020 and ended that November.
WandaVision premiered with its first two episodes on January 15, 2021, and ran for nine episodes, concluding on March 5. It is the first series in Phase Four of the MCU. The series received praise from critics for its sitcom settings and tropes, dark tonal shifts, and the performances of Olsen and Bettany.
Premise
Set three weeks after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Wanda Maximoff and Vision are living an idyllic suburban life in the town of Westview, New Jersey, trying to conceal their true natures. As they begin to enter new decades and encounter television tropes, the couple suspects that things are not as they seem.
Cast and characters
Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / The Scarlet Witch: An Avenger who can harness chaos magic, engage in telepathy and telekinesis, and alter reality. Olsen said the series brings the character more in line with the comic book version, including depicting her mental illness, and introducing the "Scarlet Witch" moniker that was not previously used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Executive producer Kevin Feige added that the series explores the extent and origin of Wanda's powers. Olsen felt her "ownership" of Wanda was strengthened during development of the series, which allowed her to explore new parts of the character's personality such as her humor and sassiness. She was thrilled that WandaVision focuses on Wanda rather than telling her story "through everyone else's story lines" as in the films, and was sold on joining the series when Feige mentioned specific Scarlet Witch comic storylines that inspired WandaVision. Olsen was influenced by Mary Tyler Moore, Elizabeth Montgomery, and Lucille Ball for her performance. Michaela Russell portrays a young Wanda.
Paul Bettany as Vision: An android and former Avenger created using the artificial intelligences J.A.R.V.I.S. and Ultron as well as the Mind Stone, who was killed in the film Avengers: Infinity War (2018). Bettany portrays a new version of the character created by Wanda within her reality, who he described as "decent and honorable" and for whom he was influenced by the performances of Dick Van Dyke and Hugh Laurie. Bettany also plays the original character, referred to as "The Vision", who is reassembled and reactivated by S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division). That version has an all-white appearance similar to when the comic book character was resurrected with an all-white body and without his memories and emotions. Bettany differentiated the two versions by making The Vision be both familiar and intimidating.
Debra Jo Rupp as Sharon Davis: A New Jersey resident and wife of Todd, who plays "Mrs. Hart", Wanda and Vision's neighbor, in the fictional WandaVision sitcom.
Fred Melamed as Todd Davis: A New Jersey resident and husband of Sharon, who plays "Arthur Hart", Wanda and Vision's neighbor and Vision's boss, in the fictional WandaVision sitcom.
Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness: A witch who masquerades as "Agnes", Wanda and Vision's "nosy neighbor" within the fictional WandaVision sitcom. Hahn described Agnes as the neighbor "that won't get off their couch at the end of the night" and is "always in [their] business". Hahn was fascinated by the "jolts of adrenaline and humanity" the MCU provided and the fact it had a "gasp of human magic". Hahn likened Agatha's relationship with Wanda to Antonio Salieri's with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, believing it was "maddening" to Agatha to see magic come so naturally to Wanda after she had spent centuries studying it.
Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau: The daughter of Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau and a captain in S.W.O.R.D., who first introduces herself to Wanda and Vision as "Geraldine" within the fictional WandaVision sitcom. She has a "toughness and an ability to be a woman" in a male-dominated world. As a child, she looked up to her mother's friend and colleague Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel. Head writer Jac Schaeffer's initial pitch for the series had a different character in Rambeau's role, but she was excited to use Rambeau instead when it was discovered that she was available for the series, with co-executive producer Mary Livanos adding Rambeau's inclusion in the series was a discovery during development that became "really enriched in the show". The series shows what Rambeau has seen and done since her introduction in Captain Marvel (2019), where she was portrayed as a child by Akira Akbar. Parris used Akbar's performance as the starting point for her own, and took Monica's relationships with her mother and Danvers into account.
Randall Park as Jimmy Woo: An FBI agent working with S.W.O.R.D. who previously was the parole officer of Scott Lang / Ant-Man. Park felt introducing Woo using close-up magic, something he was trying to perfect in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), quickly showed the character's development since that film, indicating that he was getting better at multiple things and was being assigned to larger cases. Park was taught the magic trick by a magician and spent several days perfecting it for the series.
Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis: An astrophysicist working with S.W.O.R.D. who previously interned for Jane Foster and befriended Thor. Returning to the role for the first time since Thor: The Dark World (2013), Dennings felt Lewis would not have changed much as a person, but would be older and wiser after going to school to receive her doctorate in astrophysics. Additionally, Dennings felt the character has more confidence in herself now that she is viewed as "the boss" which she never was in the films.
Evan Peters as Ralph Bohner: A Westview resident under Agatha's control posing as Wanda's twin brother Pietro, who was killed in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), portrayed by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. This was a nod to Peters' role as Peter Maximoff in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series. Schaeffer and Livanos were eager to bring Pietro back in the series, and decided to take advantage of its notions of "what's real and what's not, and performance, and casting, and audience, and fandom" by having the character be "recast" within the fictional WandaVision program. Schaeffer noted that this plays on the sitcom tropes of recasting characters without "much fuss" and also of having a relative arrive in town who "stirs things up with the family", and likened Peters' performance to a mixture of Jesse Katsopolis from Full House, Nick Moore from Family Ties, and Joey Tribbiani from Friends.
Recurring residents of Westview include Asif Ali as Abilash Tandon who plays Vision's co-worker "Norm"; David Lengel as Harold Proctor who plays "Phil Jones"; Amos Glick as a pizza delivery man cast as "Dennis", the mailman/delivery man; Emma Caulfield Ford as Sarah Proctor, Harold's wife who plays "Dottie Jones", a "skeptical mom who rules the neighborhood with an iron fist and poison smile"; and David Payton as John Collins who plays "Herb". Ithamar Enriquez and Victoria Blade also recur as the man and woman in the commercials, along with Josh Stamberg as S.W.O.R.D. acting director Tyler Hayward, Alan Heckner and Selena Anduze as S.W.O.R.D. agents Monti and Rodriguez, and Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne as Wanda and Vision's sons Billy and Tommy, respectively.
Additional guest stars include Jolene Purdy as Isabel Matsueda who plays Wanda and Vision's neighbor "Beverly"; frequent MCU stuntman Zac Henry as Franklin, a S.W.O.R.D. agent who enters Wanda's reality as a beekeeper; Randy Oglesby as Dr. Stan Nielson, the doctor in Westview; Wesley Kimmel and Sydney Thomas as the boy and girl in the commercials; and Kate Forbes as Agatha's mother, Evanora Harkness. Ilana Kohanchi and Daniyar portray Wanda's parents Iryna and Olek Maximoff, respectively, while Gabriel Gurevich plays a young version of her brother Pietro.
The Verdict:
Right off the bat, I want to mention that this may be a rather unorthodox review of sorts as there hasn't been a superhero show quite like this for the Marvel Cinematic Universe until now. This is the first of its kind for the Disney+ streaming platform and the first "official" television series under Marvel Studios, unlike those that were under the now defunct Marvel Television banner.
This series is going to be a really tough sell for a lot of people, especially given the fact that both Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision have both had minimal exposure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up to this point. Both of them have appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War (Vision's last appearance prior to this series), and Avengers: Endgame. The sitcom-style premise wasn't an idea that was intriguing to a lot of people I talked to leading up to this series' premiere either.
If there's casual viewers who are baffled at the numerous questions to be had from Wanda having children with a synthezoid android like my older sister who was calling me after every episode asking how does that even make sense, I'm going to tell all of you the same thing that I told her, "Welcome to the club. Us comic book nerds have been asking the same thing for decades now..."
The first three episodes stick true to being heavily influenced by old television sitcoms with Wanda and Vision carrying out their lives day to day, but you could something wasn't quite right as the episodes continued on with them living happily together as husband and wife. Wanda even somehow gets pregnant and gives birth to twin sons, Billy and Tommy.
It wasn't until Episode 4 that we are introduced to an adult Monica Rambeau, daughter to Maria Rambeau who both were introduced into the original Captain Marvel film. She returns back to life after five years due to Thanos' infamous Snap, thanks to the efforts of the Avengers in Avengers: Endgame and quickly comes to the horrifying terms of what she had missed due to the Snap. I was glad that the Snap wasn't portrayed as a joke here like it was in Spider-Man: Far From Home as there were some very serious ramifications that needed to be explored concerning how it affected many people's lives in this continuity going forward. Episode 4 pretty much lays the foundation of what S.W.O.R.D. is currently in the MCU with Acting Director Tyler Hayward putting her on the assignment of helping FBI agent Jimmy Woo with a missing persons case in Westview, New Jersey. Apparently, Wanda has closed off the entire town within her "sitcom" that Dr. Darcy Lewis (one of many scientists brought in by S.W.O. R.D. to study this phenomenon) dubs "WandaVision" that Monica found herself pulled inside. Monica found herself thrown out of the town after mentioning Ultron, which brought forth her memories of Vision when he died.
At this point right here, I was convinced that they were going to fast track Wanda into being the villain in this ordeal in some capacity. I was glad to be wrong with Hayward having his own agenda.
This moment did have people talking as much the second season finale on The Mandalorian, but too bad that it was as much of a swerve/misdirect as The Mandarin's reveal in Ironman 3.
Episode 5 saw Wanda's sitcom attempt to resume, despite Hayward's attempts to kill Wanda. Vision becomes aware that Wanda is controlling the town of Westview after freeing the mind of one of his "co-workers" and attempts to confront Wanda about the scope of what she is doing until they are interrupted by the arrival of "Pietro", Wanda's thought-to-be dead brother. Pietro's arrival came as an utter shock to everyone - onscreen and viewers watching at home as he wasn't Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Avengers: Age of Ultron, but instead Evan Peters, who portrayed the character in 20th Century Fox's X-Men movies. That would make for the first Fox X-Men actor to play the same character for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Seeing Wanda, "Pietro", Billy, Tommy, and Vision all sporting Halloween costumes of their comic book counterparts really got a big smile out of me on this episode, especially when there was a point where Olsen said in previous interviews that she wouldn't be caught dead in that costume.
Episode 6 had Vision dig deeper into what the scope of what Wanda has done to Westview, only to escape the static wall of Wanda's sitcom world. Upon exposure to the "real" world, Vision's body immediately begins to disintegrate as he collapses in front of the S.W.O.R.D. agents gathering nearby. Wanda expands the range of her "Hex" spell (that was surrounding the town of Westview to trap them within her sitcom), saving Vision, but engulfing everyone else nearby as well.
Whereas episodes 1-3 was painting the picture of Wanda's sitcom life with episodes 4-6 pulling the curtain back a bit and showing what was really going on, we finally had the final 3 episodes of this series that served as the "true" behind the scenes with director's commentary on what was really going on in Westview and the events that led up to this ordeal.
That begun with Wanda's "nosey neighbor" Agnes introducing herself as a witch named Agatha Harkness who has been interfering with the events of her sitcom life all along.
As much as I loved the Agnes reveal, I think a lot of people called it right off of the bat when the casting news got out for this show when Kathryn Hahn landed the role. What I didn't see coming was the fact that they were going to make Agatha Harkness the primary antagonist for this series. That was a rather "odd" choice, but it works for the most part, even though the entire world is going to see Wanda as the villain instead after what she has done to an entire town of people within Westview.
Most people didn't notice this until it popped up online, but the spell book in Agatha's basement on display was the goddamn Darkhold (sporting a different design from its appearances in both Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and Marvel's Runaways).
We get a little of time with Monica, who decided to re-enter the Hex after determining that Hayward has his own agenda to paint Wanda as the villain of this ordeal while profiting off Vision's technology and vibranium body. Monica desired to connect with Wanda on an emotional level as she could relate to the scope of her grief after losing her mother. Monica's return to the Hex seems to have awakened latent superhuman powers within her genes. If I were to speculate at this point, I think they are setting her up to be either Photon (her codename that she was already going by if you look at the S.W.O.R.D. documents in Episode 4) or Spectrum, given how her powers have been in flux to different colors throughout the remainder of this series.
Agatha forces Wanda to revisit her past to find out how Wanda is controlling Westview. Up to this point in the MCU, Wanda's powers have been never properly elaborated on exactly what she is truly capable of. Now that fuzzy cloud has been properly explored along with what Wanda truly is. Agatha deduces that Wanda has had magical abilities since she was a child, but only the exposure to the Mind Stone during HYDRA's experiments on her had amplified those abilities. Hayward's statement a few episodes back about Wanda "stole" Vision's body was a lie too when it was revealed that she merely visited S.W.O.R.D. to recover his body to give him a proper funeral, only to be unable to sense any life in him. This fact drove her to visit the lot in Westview that Vision bought before his death so they could live together, only to be consumed in so much grief that she manifested a house on the lot and a new version of Vision. This is the point where the Hex originated too, which caused Agatha to conclude that Wanda possessed a legendary form of magic called "chaos magic" and dubs her the "Scarlet Witch".
At that point, I said "No shit, Sherlock. Tell me something I don't already know..." They've been (unofficially) calling her the Scarlet Witch since her debut into this continuity by the marketing.
For the record, I absolutely adore Wanda's new costume. She desperately needed a proper look for a while now.
The final episode had Wanda facing off against Agatha while Wanda's "fake" Vision and The Vision (who was reconstructed by Hayward and reactivated using a portion of Wanda's residual magic) went to war as well. "Fake" Vision would reprogram or rather restore The Vision's memories to the point of his demise at the hands of Thanos, causing him to promptly fly off and out of the Hex. Nothing Wanda could do seemed to gain her an upper hand against the much more experienced Agatha until Wanda used Agatha's own trick against her in the previous episode to neutralize Agatha's magic while simultaneously embracing the full scope of her own chaotic potential. Agatha isn't banished nor imprisoned upon her defeat, but merely trapped as her "Agnes" self from within the sitcom in a cruel sense of irony. Wanda then has to say goodbye to "fake" Vision and the twins after removing the Hex completely from Westview and freeing the people from her control. Wanda, now sporting a gorgeous new costume that looks more akin to the comic book counterpart, then goes into hiding.
Monica frees "Pietro" from Agatha's control, only to reveal that he was an actor named Ralph Bohner. Even though fans were disappointed about "Pietro"'s true identity, I wouldn't rule him out from a bigger role down the road. Most of the theorists online were pointing at him to being revealed as Mephisto, but I don't think the MCU is ready for that quite yet, especially when they didn't have the balls to pull the trigger on going much, much deeper into occult stuff before they cancelled Helstrom's TV series last year.
Even though I didn't review that series, I humbly give that series a thumbs up by the way.
Monica doesn't get to see much action in the finale, but was informed by a Skrull in a mid-credits scene (following Hayward's arrest) that a friend of her mother's wants to meet up - obviously in space. I would like to guess that this is going to lead into Monica appearing in either that upcoming Secret Invasion series that was announced starring Nick Fury and Talos or Captain Marvel 2. Hopefully, Monica will have a stylish costume by that point of her superhero career.
It should be noted that the final scene of this series shows Wanda studying the Darkhold that she took from Agatha in her astral form when she hears the voices of her twin boys cry out for help. If you ask me, the Darkhold is last goddamn thing that anyone should be allowing Wanda to read in her grieving state of mind.
The most interesting part about these revelations in this series are the mentions of "chaos magic", along with the fact that Agatha had the Darkhold within her possession. That makes me think that the MCU is going to bring the Elder God Chthon into this continuity, possibly as soon as Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Wanda has already been announced as a co-star with Dr. Strange in that sequel, so I think its safe to speculate that she will find herself in over her head with her newfound powers. Chthon has to make an appearance sooner more than later because chaos magic AND the Darkhold are his creations. That would make for a pretty cool adversary for Wanda and Strange to join forces to fight against, given the fact that the writers weren't alluding to Nightmare like a lot of fans theorized early on. Don't rule that out either as the director for Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness has gone on record stating that he would love to include Nightmare and the Dream Realm into that film in some capacity.
So what was up with those commercials?
Throughout the entire series, there would be a brief intermission of sorts where one of these commercials would pop up to serve as break between the first and second halves of each episode. Episode 4 doesn't have one since that was the audiences' first look of what was going on outside of Westview and away from Wanda's sitcom that was manufactured by the Hex.
You don't have to take what I say below as gospel, but this will serve as what I was personally under the impression of what each of the commercials were trying to convey.
(Episode 1)A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises a Stark Industries ToastMate 2000 toaster oven.
Stark Industries created the missile that landed in her family's Sokovian home in her youth that left her and her brother, Pietro, as orphans.
(Episode 2)A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Strücker watches.
Wolfgang von Strücker was overseeing, or rather "watching" the experiments undergone on her and her brother that fully manifested her powers.
(Episode 3)A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Hydra Soak bath powder.
Hydra was the organization that both Wanda and Pietro volunteered to as test subjects in Sokovia that was commanded by Strücker.
(Episode 5)A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Lagos paper towels.
While trying to contain the explosion that Brock Rumlow (i.e. Crossbones) intended to kill Steve Rogers/Captain America, Wanda flung it upwards into the air, accidentally killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers to her dismay. This event led to the United Nations (UN) passing the Sokovia Accords, which would establish a UN panel to oversee and control the actions of the Avengers.
I'm sure that this is a mistake that Wanda wishes that she could simply wipe away good as new like one of those Bounty paper towel commercials.
(Episode 6)A claymation commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Yo-Magic yogurt.
A clever play on words to point out "Your Magic" in relation to the fact that Wanda has had magical abilities all along and they were merely amplified by contact to an Infinity Stone.
(Episode 7)A commercial during the WandaVision program advertises Nexus antidepressants.
In the comics, the Nexus is a cross-dimensional gateway which provides a pathway to any and all possible realities, this includes realities between realities. It is unknown whether it was created by some being or just if it's the one place in the entire multiverse where all realities naturally intersect.
The irony here is that Nexus is the name of antidepressants in the commercial whereas Wanda made her own standalone reality to cope with her ongoing grief and loneliness. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised that the Nexus isn't brought up again in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. They would be crazy not to elaborate on that concept.
Closing Thoughts
For me personally, I really enjoyed WandaVision from start to finish. I liked the homages to old television sitcoms in the first "act" (episodes 1-3), the behind the scenes look at what was really going on in Westview in the second (episodes 4-6), and final act pulling back the layers on Wanda's past and having her accept her present and potential future.
By chance, I saw this tweet show up on my timeline that was retweeted by a friend while I was working on this review.
Hey guys I got a great idea for a movie where a woman who feels sad and disenfranchised is imbued with phenomenal cosmic powers by divine circumstance but her volatile emotions make them difficult for her to control. pic.twitter.com/XZUog5w9T4
It's easy to write off Wanda in the same category as these women - both versions of Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix and Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel - but there's some significant differences. 20th Century Fox has had two chances to portray the story of Jean Grey and her struggles with the Phoenix Force, only to result in two massive failures and colossal disappointments from fans. Carol has always been a character grounded by her emotions once you strip her away from nonsensical baggage that the character had been saddled with in her comics history - ranging from being impregnated by some alien god that grows up to be one of her main antagonists to recycling a lot of Mar-Vell's Kree adversaries and affiliations due to her Kree physiology. Carol's only had ONE solo film and one other cameo appearance in the MCU to date. I'm holding my judgment on her characterization in this continuity until after Captain Marvel 2's credits roll. A character that powerful, much like the Scarlet Witch, has to tread careful without undermining all of the other characters in this continuity surrounding her. It's the same dilemma as having Superman and Wonder Woman on the same team that leaves people wondering exactly what could challenge them to the point where their teammates aren't essentially useless in a fight?
In that aspect, I thought WandaVision did really well in taking these two really powerful characters, Scarlet Witch and The Vision, and peeling back the layers on them as individuals. It was a welcome change of pace when we have been accustomed to them being that silver bullet in the chamber for that one particular nasty baddie that you need someone on their level to deal with. Otherwise, they were mostly nonexistent to the core narratives outside of being plot devices to move the stories of other characters forward - i.e. Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Avengers: Infinity War.
If you didn't understand this, then you've totally missed the entire point of this show from start to finish.
I think the point that is lost on a lot of people is that WandaVision is a story with Wanda's struggle with dealing with all of the grief that she has accumulated up to this point and her struggle to come to terms with that reality.
It's sad too to see that she had all of the good intentions in the world for making this paradise for her and Vision, only to create a living nightmare for the residents of Westview. I'm sure that there will be massive ramifications for her actions in this series, despite not having any control of the chaos magic that she wields. That's a plot thread that can be easily revisited if Marvel Studios wants to use that as a starting point to introduce mutants (and later, the X-Men) into the MCU.
There is a sequence where Monica tells Wanda, "They’ll never know what you sacrificed for them" and Wanda replied, “It wouldn’t change how they see me.” [Writer Jac] Schaeffer felt that with that scene and the other scenes that they did have, with the residents shouting at Wanda and noting that she even gave them her nightmares when they were allowed to sleep, they got enough of the point across, "I think Wanda’s walk of shame back into the town is really powerful, and it was written as such on the page. It was meant to be like an assault of death glares from people, and we were meant to feel how angry they all are. “I remember a note from [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin [Feige] being like, ‘More, more, let’s feel that for her, let’s understand that what she did was terrible,'”
Schaeffer elaborated on that point, “It wasn’t about landing her in a way where it’s like, ‘Everything’s wrapped up and squeaky clean, and she’s a hero and has done no wrong!’ She’s done a lot of wrong. And there will probably be reckonings down the line. No, I like how that’s in the gray area of misdeeds that she’s been involved in.”
Shakman agreed, pointing out, "We’re not trying to let Wanda off the hook at all. The daggers that she’s getting from every townsperson as she walks through town should clearly show that she’s not being forgiven, and she won’t be forgiven, by them. She understands that.” (Comicbook Resources)
I love that scene at the end too (mentioned in the quote above) with all of the townspeople of Westview staring daggers at Wanda for what she did to them as she slowly walked out of town. All wasn't forgiven and everything didn't revert back to normal Phantom Menace-style (a common trope in a lot of these superhero films and TV series). No, Wanda was left with another blemish on her reputation to give humanity yet another reason to fear powered people like her. Things aren't going to become any easier, I'm afraid. If anything, Wanda's actions here will make the Sokovia Accords even tighter on the actions of powered individuals like the Avengers. We may be a far cry from seeing mutants and the X-Men in the MCU anytime soon, but Wanda isn't making humanity's potential reception of them any easier. It's not like the Inhumans haven't already shit the bed on that already too, but that's a totally different subject altogether.
Speaking of the X-Men, I'm sure that a lot of people were disappointed with the swerve about the real identity of "Pietro", but I think that was a good thing. This series didn't need to be bogged down by a potential debut of Magneto and the debut of mutants. That would have distracted from the story that needed to be told concerning Wanda and Vision. It made for a much more intimate, personal narrative, despite including Monica Rambeau's origin story as a minor footnote/sidebar. There's plenty of time to integrate the X-Men into the MCU. Wanda needed this solo outing to flesh out her character, who has been pretty bland since her inception in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
I really felt that line here from Wanda.
In terms of swerves, I'm glad that this story didn't go the predicable route of making Wanda the antagonist and driving her insane with power a la Dark Phoenix-style. We don't have to fast track her to the House of M-style breakdown already. It's a marathon, not a sprint. That's where Warner Bros. has been getting wrong with the DC Extended Universe, feeling that they need to "catch up" to the MCU when they have been decades ahead of them all of this time, but didn't have the foresight to think that a shared universe film continuity would be a worldwide hit and phenomenon. I feel that we're going to get that House of M ("No More Mutants...") moment down the road, but Wanda clearly isn't there yet. She doesn't even have full mastery of her powers, even at the end of this series when she started studying from the Darkhold after besting Agatha Harkness. There is no telling what sacrificing her personal paradise is going to do to further damage her psyche in the future, especially when the memory of her twin sons is fresh in her mind. I appreciated that this series showed us that what Wanda has displayed in terms of power has been child's play in terms of her true magical potential, so there's still some growth to be had in the maturity of her powers.
I thought this was a clever clue to the possibility that Monica Rambeau will using the moniker of "Spectrum" in her proper costumed debut. Then again, if you look at the S.W.O.R.D. documents in the background of several episodes, she's already being referred to under the codename, "Photon".
I thought the now grown up Monica Rambeau was a great character to introduce (again) in this series. She completely understands where Wanda was coming from in terms of her grief and sorrow from losing her own mother and related to Wanda's loss of losing the love of her life. Where Hayward and his followers within S.W.O.R.D. were deadset on painting Wanda as the villain of this ordeal without any redeemable qualities, Monica was deadset on proving that Wanda could right the wrongs of this situation as long as she could get back into the Hex and talk Wanda off of the ledge before she truly becomes the villain that many have assumed that she is following the Lagos incident. It's a nice change of pace to find characters in this genre that don't immediately resort to violence in situations like this. Throughout the entire series, Monica has resorted to violence as the last resort or in self-defense, even after she manifested extraordinary abilities of her own. This character trait made her the perfect outsider looking into the Hex in a sense. She was able to relate to Wanda's plight unlike anyone else in S.W.O.R.D.'s organization.
While it would have been much easier to call upon one of the many Avengers post-Endgame, I think this decision made for better world-building in the larger scope of things. When the series ended, I was left with the feeling that we were robbed of some further development(s) with Monica, but in hindsight, I realized that this wasn't Monica's story. This was Wanda's story to tell and any further distractions from that would have muddled up the waters more than it needed to be. The MCU can easily follow through with Monica's story in either Secret Invasion and/or Captain Marvel 2. I repeat - Monica's story here was needed to have a character who could emphasize with Wanda's story of grief.
I don't think that I have mentioned Vision enough in this review, so I should talk about him briefly, despite this show being essentially a one-woman show in a sense.
The Vision in WandaVision isn't the Vision that we have come to know that died at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. This Vision is a physical manifestation of Wanda's memories and emotions of the real genuine Vision. The real Vision would be rebuilt by Hayward's subordinates working as part of S.W.O.R.D. and would be brought back to life by residual chaos magic left by Wanda's own devices throughout this ordeal. That being said, Wanda's "fake" Vision is still as charming as the Vision we know and love from the past. Their final confrontation in the series finale ends in a manner that only could work with two Visions in combat - a civil debate comparing notes on literature to their own existences.
While this Vision looked cool with a different color scheme, I wish they would have taken the time to do something about his overall costume design. It just never looks right to me in these films. They knocked it out of the park with Wanda's costume revisions, so why couldn't they do the same for The Vision?
This "white" Vision echoes the Avengers West Coast storyline, Vision Quest, where he was stripped of all of his memories and rebuilt as a blank slate. This storyline would lead to the Darker Than Scarlet storyline, where Wanda would learn the truth about her twin sons not being real at all. In reality, they are fragments of Mephisto's soul. That drives Scarlet Witch mad and she turns on the Avengers as a villain. Another villain by the name of Immortus, better known as Kang the Conquerer (someone who has already been confirmed to be the primary antagonist for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), informs the Avengers that she is a "Nexus being" (see that term again?) - one who belongs equally to all possible timelines and all realities and divergences throughout the Multiverse. It's Immortus who engineered the Scarlet Witch's various tragedies — and her subsequent mental break — to make her susceptible to his control, allowing him to wield her probability-altering powers and safeguard key events across an infinite number of timelines.
With all of that in mind, it's very easy to see that Kang the Conquerer could be a major threat in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as he wants to protect his timeline and potentially the Multiverse as a whole after the Avengers' tampering with time and space in Avengers: Endgame.
But was Vision ever truly alive though outside of an elaborate AI program and whatever the Mind Stone did that was housed within his forehead? Still... this was a great moment from Darcy nonetheless.
Even though Randall Park's Jimmy Woo annoyed me to no end in Ant-Man and the Wasp, I thought him and Kat Dennings' Darcy Lewis were great additions to this cast. Darby provided the voice of the audience, often uttering and commenting on things that viewers at home were possibly thinking at the same time from episode to episode of WandaVision.
My favorite commentary from her was "She recast Pietro!!??" during the Evan Peters reveal.
I think the biggest missed opportunity was having Darcy Lewis end up in a rundown diner and playing the role of a waitress in the Hex. That would have been a fun Easter Egg for Two Broke Girls fans to see her channel a little of Max Black here. Oh well. That's what I wanted instead of all of the people were bitching and moaning about the lack of Mephisto and/or Nightmare here.
Trust me, there's a lot of people still whining and complaining about the lack of Mephisto, Nightmare, or better yet - Dr. Strange - in this series, but like I have mentioned numerous times in this review, we still have something to look forward to in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I won't lie though - I was expecting an appearance from Dr. Strange after the second that Agatha Harkness mentioned that Wanda's powers were derived from "chaos magic", but it didn't flat out ruin the show when he didn't show up. I think The Mandalorian, along with Avengers: Endgame, has spoiled a lot of people into thinking that every single time that one of these major crisises pops up in this continuity that we're going to get a big Avengers team-up/crossover with multiple heroes or something that calls back to older heroes that we haven't seen in a while. I think we as a whole as viewers and fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have to realize that there's a place for these solo, intimate films and television shows like this. WandaVision is an essentially a much needed sidebar venture that was needed to serve as a prelude of what is to come with the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward.
Watch It or Don't Bother?
My thoughts exactly, Darcy.
Like I mentioned at the start of this review, I think that WandaVision is a tough sell for both casual and hardcore viewers, despite being the first new thing that fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been provided with in over a year following the events of both Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home. The sitcom presentation for the first quarter of this series will more likely turn off a lot of impatient fans who were watching this week-to-week since the payoff wasn't until roughly halfway into its nine-episode order. Even then, the progression towards any sort of reveal or enlightenment about what was really going on in Westview dragged on and on until it reached a rather predictable, yet underwhelming reveal that most people saw all along in which Wanda had created this problem all on her own without being manipulated by any outside forces or some new big bad pulling the strings like a puppet master from behind the scenes. I guess you could assign Agatha Harkness to that role to a lesser extent, but let's be real here, she was simply given that spot to serve the MCU's usual "MO" or rather modus operandi where they have to have their heroes face off against someone with a similar or identical power set in all of these solo films. It's maddening once you realize how much they have reused and recycled that trope from the beginning to present day Marvel Cinematic Universe and get away with it.
Is this a must-see affair? Let's review a few things in hindsight before answering that question, starting with the characters.
The natural inclination to see this series will come down to how interested or rather intrigued at the chance at more backstory on both Wanda Maximoff and The Vision - two characters who haven't had any single film to expand upon on their origins and background outside of the minor roles in the shadows of the core Avengers. That alone should be enough to intice skeptics to check out this series, but it's totally understandable that there's people who have absolutely no interest in seeing more of those characters after how they have been presented in this continuity to date.
In that case, then who else is there to get behind in this series?
The last minute addition (something that was admitted by writer Jac Schaeffer in an interview) of Monica Rambeau's inclusion into this narrative shows from her limited role towards the climax of this ordeal and that's a shame too when I was looking forward to seeing more of her here. (Sighs) I guess that just leaves the door open for whatever next is for her journey to eventually joining the Avengers, with this series serving as her origin story of sorts.
The return of Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo were much welcomed additions to the cast as these minor non-powered characters deserve to have some more screen time in the MCU as well. No need to have the heroes have all of the spotlight when you need living breathing characters to flesh out these worlds. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Wanda and Vision's children, Billy and Tommy, easily pave the way for a potential Young Avengers team down the road. With Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) getting her own Disney+ series, Kate Bishop set to debut and co-star in Hawkeye's upcoming Disney+ series, and Stature (Cassie Lang) possibly making her MCU debut in the 3rd Ant-Man film, then that's even more reasons to do it in my eyes.
S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation Response Division instead of being Sentient World Observation and Response Department that its known for in its comic book counterpart) makes its proper MCU debut in this series after being denied by Marvel Studios to have any elements incorporated into Marvel's Agents of SHIELD (despite multiple requests to do so by Marvel Television at the time), but strays from its comic book origins. It was founded by Maria Rambeau, Monica's mother, but currently ran by Tyler Hayward instead of Abigail Brand like its comic book counterpart, with the entire organization being based on Earth instead of monitoring alien threats. With the mid-credits teaser, I think that will change in the near-future though.
While Marvel Studios did allow WandaVision to plant the seeds for what is to come on the horizon going forward, I honestly can't deny that most of this material here isn't must-see material. With a lot of Disney+ subscribers, especially fans hot off the heels of The Mandalorian last year, itching for more original content that is exclusive to the platform, one can't look at WandaVision in its entirety as something that can hold a candle to that spin-off series that may have single-handedly saved and/or rekindled fans' faith in the future of the Star Wars franchise. I know that's not fair to compare to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they are both properties under Disney's umbrella and there's a lot of skepticism, fear, superhero fatigue, and overall anticipation of how Disney will continue keep fans engaged following the heights the MCU reached with Avengers: Endgame.
That being said, I think it's completely unfair to compare this series to either The Mandalorian or Avengers: Endgame. You have to be delusional to think that every shot out of the cannon following the accumulation of over a decade of storytelling that served as a "finale" of sorts for that journey for a lot of characters is going to be a massive hit, especially when there were flaws in Endgame - something that I have pointed out repeatedly on several occasions. I expect the MCU to start again with small flickers of greatness before building back up to where we were at in Infinity War and Endgame. Those films on their own were massive undertakings in their own right. The same can be said about this first shot in the dark at a television series on their own streaming service. Much like Lucasfilm with Star Wars, Marvel Studios are more comfortable and at home making feature films - not condensing their stories to be stretched out over onto a streaming platform as a television series. The production values in terms of visuals and cinematography is still here in WandaVision - even going beyond expectations in some capacities - but at the cost of padding this story for a near four-hour affair, divided up into 25-40+ minute episodes.
Even I will admit that a lot of this story could have been condensed into a smaller, easier to digest format, but ultimately, it got its point across. This is a story fueled entirely by Wanda's grief as a result of the events of the Infinity Saga and how she overcomes the unique circumstances of dealing with this mental illness before it consumes her - and the people of Westview - permanently and forever.
TL:DR? All that I'm saying that while there's some bright spots in this story, I don't consider this a must-see entry in the MCU going forward. Instead, I see it as a minor footnote that I would suggest to fans of the Scarlet Witch and The Vision to compare with their comic book counterparts. Otherwise, most people could get by skipping over this entry and simply reading the summaries online. There's a lot of things tease for what is to come, but not enough meat to sink viewers' teeth into.
