By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin vs. Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland in a Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament match: My favorite match of the night. I don’t think it needed as much Cassidy comedy as there was and it felt like we could have used more tension between Lee and Swerve, but it was still a well worked and crowd pleasing tag team match. Cassidy and Allin went above and beyond to make Lee shine in defeat. I still don’t understand why Swerve takes so many losses. He seemed like a great candidate to beat Cassidy for the AEW International Title. Swerve lost that match and now only seems capable of beating members of Chaos in multi-person tag matches. Are we ever going to see the Lee vs. Swerve singles showdown match?
Kenny Omega vs. Wheeler Yuta: A Hit from a match quality standpoint. I’m very curious to see how this segment performs in the ratings. Omega’s singles matches tend to be draws, but Yuta is the low man in Blackpool Combat Club and has been taking some losses on television lately. The spot where the referee left the ring to join the small army of security guards who blocked Don Callis on the ramp was awful. Nearly every pro wrestling company is guilty of making the referees look like fools, but it seems to happen more in AEW than anywhere else lately. The Dark Order stopping Hangman Page from using the chair as a weapon was a solid follow-up to last week’s angle and yet I still roll my eyes at the story of the nerds feeling jilted now that their cool friend has gone back to hanging out with the other cool kids.
Chris Jericho and Don Callis: More than anything, the segment gave hope to those of us who have been anxious to see Jericho Appreciation Society disband. The next evolution of Jericho feels long overdue. Fortunately, it appears that the wheels are finally in motion with Callis inviting him to join his family. I like that Jericho simply said maybe as opposed to wrapping things up all in one segment.
Nick Wayne video package: A good production piece that provided some basics on the soon-to-be 18 year-old who will debut on next week’s Dynamite. The real life endorsement from Darby Allin can only help Wayne. I am really looking forward to his debut match with familiar foe Swerve Strickland next week.
MJF and Adam Cole vs. Matt Menard and The Butcher in a Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament match: The match was fine with MJF and Cole getting an obvious win. Their gym video was really tame given that they teased having a wild weekend on last week’s show. I must add that I find it comical that so many fans who claim to despise what they consider sports entertainment seem to love it when it involves two of their favorites.
AEW Dynamite Misses
The Acclaimed and Harley Cameron: The Acclaimed’s showcase match was fine. The Miss is all about the post match angle with Cameron popping up on the big screen and boasting about being the best musician in AEW. Fans who only watch Dynamite haven’t seen much of Cameron, and does anyone care about her musicianship claim? It’s amazing that the Acclaimed are still over big with the live crowds because the booking has totally let them down ever since they won the AEW Tag Team Titles. I don’t see things getting any better if they end up working with the QTV crew.
Britt Baker vs. Rubo Soho in an Owen Hart Cup tournament match: There were some rough spots to go along with the usual nonsense of The Outcasts making the referees look foolish.
Jon Moxley promo: The heel accused babyface Eddie Kingston of talking shit about the younger generation of wrestlers. Furthermore, Moxley spoke about how he spends his time building the next generation. Realism is great when it fits with the story, but this came off like another case of Moxley not going for heat despite being in the top heel faction.
Swerve is NOT liked by fans for the most part, and pushing him would result in “go-away” heat to a greater extent that it’s already happening.
Yuta sticks out like a sore thumb in the BCC, and seems like he was just forced in there, so I understand why he takes the losses.
I’m not against “sports entertainment”, its just most of it is BS and weak. The segment with MJF and Cole wasn’t horrible…wasn’t great, but I did laugh a couple of times.
I being used to try and get am guessing the Acclaimed is going to be used to try and get some interest to the QTV crew more than it being bringing the Acclaimed down a notch….
The show was a blast to watch because the crowd was insanely into it, and therefore the wrestlers were pumped (they feed off each other like any other performer), so that was great to see.
Lastly, Ruby Soho is not over. At all.