By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Pac vs. Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship: A fun main event that capped off AEW’s debut in Canada with a fan favorite winning a title. Granted, the championship is at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the AEW branded titles, but Cassidy is popular enough that perhaps his reign can breathe some life into the most awkward of the company’s many titles.
“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry vs. Luchasaurus: A pay-per-view caliber match that opened the show on Dynamite. Perry and Luchasaurus worked really well together. The dynamic is perfect with the undersized babyface and the monster heel. Perry’s character showed heart in defeat, and this was a case of a distraction finish being perfectly logical rather than feeling like a copout. That said, I did have to laugh at referee Rick Knox stopping Perry from going after Christian Cage at ringside. Knox is famous for throwing out the rulebook during Young Bucks matches, and yet the one time he stepped up came at a time when there actually is no rule that should have prevented Perry going after Cage at ringside.
Jon Moxley and Hangman Page: It’s rare that Moxley’s mic work isn’t the most memorable part of a verbal exchange he’s involved in. Moxley delivered his usual good mic work, but this was Page’s night to shine and he made the most of it by delivering a strong promo heading into their AEW World Championship match. I get the idea of having MJF in the luxury box, but in this case it actually distracted the live crowd from Page’s promo. Even so, Page was able to regain their attention and the overall segment raised my interest level in next week’s match. I’m not sure what to make of Page mentioning that his “old friends disappeared.” That line was obviously in reference to Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. And while it could be a tease that the trio is on the verge of returning from suspension, this is the same Adam Page who famously went off script during a verbal segment with CM Punk. In other words, it’s hard to say whether this was a key line or just a case of Page making an unapproved reference to his buddies.
Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter: A well worked match. As much as I’ve groaned about Storm rarely feeling like the featured player in these near weekly tag team or six-woman tag matches, it was a logical move to have Shida get the win before she challenges Storm for the AEW Women’s Championship next week. That said, the build to their match has been underwhelming in that it feels like it’s coming out of nowhere as opposed to being a match that they spent time building to.
Wardlow and Samoa Joe vs. QT Marshall and Nick Comoroto: A quick and decisive win for Wardlow and Samoa Joe. They are obviously setting up a match with the Gates of Agony, but I continue to wonder if the Wardlow and Joe bromance will fall apart and lead to a showdown singles match.
Renee Paquette joins the broadcast team: What took so long? Paquette has a likable personality and does terrific in the interviewer role. It’s great to see her back on pro wrestling television doing what she does best.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Chris Jericho vs. Bryan Danielson for the ROH Championship: The work between Jericho and Danielson was definitely a Hit, but the finish of the match was an overbooked mess. Following a ref bump, Jericho was on the verge of hitting Danielson with the ROH Championship belt. However, Daniel Garcia came out and stopped Jericho from hitting Danielson just so that they could swerve everyone by pushing and shoving before Garcia hit Danielson with the belt instead. It was a nonsensical sequence. I also don’t care for the end result that moved Garcia back into Jericho Appreciation Society. All of those melodramatic segments involving Garcia led to him going back to the sports entertainment faction? And can anyone explain why there is a sports entertainment faction spoofing faction in the post Vince McMahon era?
Swerve Strickland vs. Billy Gunn: More of an in the middle. I wasn’t a fan of Strickland having to steal the pin as opposed to getting a credibility boosting clean and decisive win over the veteran. I get it, he’s a heel, but this felt like a good spot to put over Strickland clean. Strickland’s in-ring work has been strong for many years and now he’s really emerged as a good talker. AEW should strap a rocket to Strickland with or without Keith Lee. The post match angle with Mark Sterling announcing that he trademarked “scissoring” was a groaner. Sterling is a talented performer, but everything he’s booked to do feels too campy.
FTR: Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler received arguably the strongest reaction of the night, so it’s not as if they’ve done anything to warrant being placed in the Miss section. Rather, it continues to be baffling that FTR is one of the most over acts in the pro wrestling business and yet we rarely see them work standard tag team matches on AEW television. While the duo did defend the ROH Tag Titles on Friday’s AEW Battle of the Belts, they haven’t worked a traditional tag team match on Dynamite since May. Why?
“While the duo did defend the ROH Tag Titles on Friday’s AEW Battle of the Belts, they haven’t worked a traditional tag team match on Dynamite since May. Why?”
The Young Bucks are petty and have too much control for a team that’s never done anything. So, when a team who actually look like grown men and have real matches comes along and gets popular, the Bucks do everything they can to undermine that team. In FTR’s case, all it has done is increase their popularity while turning a sizeable portion of the company’s fanbase against the children.
Renee Paquette is brilliant and I am so glad to see her on Dynamite. Hopefully the company will allow her to do more than stand in the background after asking one question while the interviewee gets interrupted.
JUST my opinion, but the difference between AEW and other companies with matches such as Toni Storm and Hikaru Shida is that its just the champ going against a top contender…..and that’s good enough, at least for me.
There are storyline feuds, and I enjoy those too, but in the old days, when guys like Hawk would face Flair, it wasn’t because it was a 4 month program to set it up, it was because Flair was the champ and Hawk was a beast who was a threat.
I do think Swerve could have won clean, but its obvious that the negative fan reaction has caused his character to act more heel-like, so I get it. I do admit him turning on Keith Lee and then them having a match is not something I’m looking forward to, but maybe it will be better than I expect.
Other than that, I enjoyed the show, and AEW oftentimes puts on matches on Dynamite, and sometimes Rampage, that could absolutely be on a PPV, so I appreciate Khan for that.