By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
MJF’s Long Island homecoming: A ridiculously over the top celebration that included MJF singing with a big band, which left me feeling like I was watching a jacked Seth MacFarlane. I get a kick out of the Bizarro World vibe that exists for AEW shows on Long Island. I even missed CM Punk being there to heel on the locals. MJF was a riot and it’s hard to imagine many viewers would be even tempted to reach for their remotes while watching this all play out.
Jamie Hayter vs. Riho for the AEW Women’s Championship: It was refreshing to see a quality women’s match get plenty of time and not be positioned at the bottom of the second hour. Hayter needs more mic time, but she really is a great choice to build the division around.
“House of Black” Malakai Black, Brody King, and Buddy Matthews vs. Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Chuck Taylor for the AEW Trios Titles: A strong match and a good title defense for the House of Black trio. It was nice to see that the live crowd remembered Trent’s mom Sue, as it’s been a minute since he last appeared on AEW television.
Jay White debuts: It was a wild moment when White made an unadvertised appearance in the opening segment. Where the Raw after WrestleMania mostly failed to live up to the expectations that fans have for big moments and surprises, AEW delivered a big one right out of the gate. But then the show featured everything from a major announcement to an attack with a screwdriver to a freaking MJF big band number. By the time it was over, White’s appearance felt like a bit of an afterthought. I get the approach of not giving away too much of a new signee on night one, but it also felt like they could have done more to ensure that White’s arrival felt like a major happening that people were still buzzing about by the end of the night. And don’t even get me started on launching yet another faction, let alone Bullet Club 8.0. All of that said, it was a wild way to open the show and White is a great signing with world championship upside.
Tony Khan’s announcement: The news of AEW running a stadium show as its first overseas event is worthy of the big announcement hype, assuming that All In will be a pay-per-view event. If it’s not a pay-per-view, then it’s a letdown for everyone on this side of the pond because it doesn’t affect us in any way. But if it is a pay-per-view event, then AEW should have made that clear and delivered this announcement even more fanfare. The three-man announcement in some random backstage area with Tony Khan referring to the event as “one of the biggest shows in the history of the company” was underplayed. Again, assuming this is a pay-per-view event, then this isn’t “one of” AEW’s biggest events, it is hands down the biggest event in the company’s history. Scream it from the mountain tops. And why are we still left wondering about the pay-per-view status and whether there will be an All Out event the next weekend? How were these things not addressed in the actual announcement? Ideally, All In will be branded as this company’s premier annual event. It doesn’t have to be a stadium show every year, but it would be nice to see this company have a marquee event each year rather than the current approach of having Double Or Nothing and All Out feel comparably big, while Rebellion and Full Gear feel smaller, and none feel like mega events. WWE has WrestleMania. Impact Wrestling has Bound For Glory. ROH has Final Battle. WCW had Starrcade. AEW should have its own annual super show.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Sammy Guevara: His match with Komander was solid, but the post match promo was rough. Guevara came off nervous and insecure as he walked circles around the ring while delivering a mostly forgettable promo. There’s still time to fix it, but at this point Guevara feels like the weak link in the expected Four Pillars four-way match. His ring work should make it a better match than it would be without him, but he still feels like the most likely to be pinned and least likely to actually win the AEW World Championship.
Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn vs. “FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler for the AEW Tag Team Titles (or FTR’s AEW career): As much as I assumed that FTR would win the titles, I really hoped that the Gunns would rise to the occasion and gain something in defeat. Their entrance was strong and they’ve clearly put a lot of work into their presentation, but the match was forgettable, which is rare for important FTR matches. On the bright side, FTR holding the tag titles give me hope that the tag team division will get the boost that it has needed ever since the emphasis shifted to getting the trios division off the ground.
Blackpool Combat Club: Why are they still coming out to the crowd pleasing “Wild Thing” anthem if they are heels? I enjoyed their squash win over the three local wrestlers. My issue is that we went from an emotional Bryan Danielson stating that he was going home because he felt that he let his family down to suddenly having him back and being an all out heel. It’s a jarring shift and it’s really difficult to buy nice guy Danielson as a sadistic heel. He’s a talented guy and I’m hopeful that he’ll win me over in this role, but it feels too abrupt in the moment. The screwdriver angle felt more strange than anything. And listening to Excalibur go from expressing concern for Hangman Page right into delivering upbeat hype for the main event was counterproductive.
Also, why are they still called the Blackpool Combat Club? The connection to Blackpool left AEW last year.
I disagree slightly on Sammy’s promo. I actually thought Sammy did as well as can be expected, the problem was it was the (kayfabe) wrong person in the wrong setting delivering the promo. Any babyface delivering exactly the same material anywhere but Long Island would have been a memorable, crowdpleasing segment.
I know you’re a sports fan. So what’s the over/under on the Jay White signing? How many weeks is he going to be the flavor of the month? The Brookside line says 5-6 tops. And on the same kind of note.. it sure seems like the expiration date has already expired on Taya Valkrie. Haven’t read her name in any AEW/ROH event reports since her signing.