By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes vs. Brian Cage and Ricky Starks: The Dynamite main event gave a big boost to Team FTW. Cage scoring a pinfall win over Allin should lead to a TNT Title match at some point. And it will be interesting to see what Starks has to say about that given that he’s been feuding with Allin and also has interest in the TNT Title. The post match angle that resulted in Will Hobbs joining the heel faction was nicely done. I like that he brought a chair to the ring. As he dropped the chair, the guards of viewers likely dropped, meaning the belt shot that he delivered to Cody instead likely caught some viewers by surprise.
Serena Deeb vs. Thunder Rosa for the NWA Women’s Championship: The NXT Women’s Championship match was the best thing on the NXT television show, and this match was right up there for best segment on AEW Dynamite. Rosa never seems to disappoint in the ring and I am looking forward to her feud with Britt Baker. Deeb has also improved the women’s match quality on Dynamite, but the company really needs to establish who she is and what her character is all about.
AEW Tag Champions The Young Bucks vs. Top Flight in a non-title match: An excellent showing for the young Top Flight duo. It obviously helps to work with the Bucks, but Top Flight was given a big opportunity and made the most of it. I look forward to seeing more from the Martin brothers. By the way, whatever happened to FTR? We’re still waiting to hear from Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, and Tully Blanchard following their loss to the Bucks at Full Gear.
Inner Circle in Las Vegas: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss. I don’t think the segments really justified what appeared to be a costly shoot. That said, it’s not my money. The cameos were a lot of fun. It was fun to see Konnan back with Santana and Ortiz for one night, but they left me wishing they would have done more with the LAX reunion.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Orange Cassidy vs. Kip Sabian: The Sabian and Miro act does nothing for me. Most of us had high hopes for Miro’s post WWE career, but he feels just as underutilized in AEW as he did in WWE. The match was fine, but in general I would like to see AEW trim some match time and use it to give the wrestlers more promo time or even character building video packages such as the good one the company put together for the Top Flight tag team.
Pac vs. The Blade: I came away from this match with mixed feelings. I went into this match thinking that it was going to be a spotlight match for Pac in his first match back following a long pandemic layoff. It turned out to be a good, competitive match. I just don’t feel like it needed to be as competitive as it was given that Pac is the star and The Blade is one half of a mid-card tag team. It’s worth noting that while Penta El Zero Miedo ran off the heels and seemingly reformed the Death Triangle faction, he didn’t actually hit The Butcher, The Blade, or Eddie Kingston with the chair.
Although I agree the match was more competitive than it needed to be, I enjoyed the PAC match and it was for me definitely more ‘hit’ worthy than the tired Inner Circle comedy. Penta doubling back and turning on PAC and Fenix is being so obviously telegraphed that it has left me thinking there may be a double-bluff. The Will Hobbs heel turn was really well done and left me wondering who is going to show up to even the numbers for Rhodes and Allin (please Tony Khan, don’t let it be Orange Cassidy).
Yeah, I’d give Pac vs Blade a hit over the cringey Inner Circle faux Hangover segment.
Miro isn’t underutilized in AEW. He’s being given creative freedom and showing that he was at least as much to blame for the Rusev character becoming a joke as Vince was.