Powell’s AEW Dynamite Hit List: Sting and Darby Allin vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs in a Tornado Tag match, Hangman Page vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Chris Jericho

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

AEW Dynamite Hits

Samoa Joe and future challengers: Joe delivered a strong promo and shined as the highly confident new world champion. He’s taken a lot of high profile losses over the years and yet he seems teflon in that he doesn’t feel the least bit out of place in his role as the badass world champion. Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page delivered solid promos and my guess is that they are setting up a Triple Threat for Revolution. Hook coming out and showing no fear of Joe at the end was an effective way to set up his title match with Joe for next week. Here’s hoping that the new championship committee approach means we’ll see fewer random eliminator tournaments, four-ways, and battle royals to determine future challengers to the AEW World Championship.

Hangman Page vs. Claudio Castagnoli: They opened the show with a really good back and forth match. Page going over felt like the obvious play, as he’s in the world championship mix while Castagnoli seems to be slotted a tier below the pay-per-view level championship challengers.

Sting and Darby Allin vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs: A Hit for entertainment value and the hard work of everyone involved. That said, I came away from this feeling happy that Sting is retiring at Revolution. Fans would be content with watching Sting perform his greatest hits move set. It’s admirable that Sting wants to do more, but the table spot at the end of the match was just the latest example of him taking over the top risks. Normally, pro wrestling legends try to convince their proteges that less is more, but in this case it seems like Darby Allin’s insane style has rubbed off on Sting. And if there’s anyone I wish would take a “less is more” speech to heart it is the ultra talented Allin, but I digress. I just hope Sting makes it out of his retirement match in one piece. Heck, at this rate, I hope he makes it to his retirement match. I wish Tony Khan would be a leader by stepping in and stopping the 64 year-old legend with a history of spinal stenosis from taking these needless risks. Meanwhile, the Young Bucks coming out at the end to establish that they will be the final opponents for Sting and Allin is a good call. In theory, the Bucks and Allin can do the heavy lifting, though I fear Sting will want to close out his final match with a bang.

Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Keith: A soft Hit for a solid showcase win for Strong. It was good to see the serious Strong emerge after he played such an over the top character in recent months. Adam Cole’s promo was decent, but it feels like the faction is off to a rough start due to the leader’s inability to wrestle due to injury while their top target is apparently sidelined by an injury of his own. The proposed “Bang Bang Scissors Gang” super faction doesn’t do much for me, but I guess it would give The Undisputed Kingdom (still a horrible name) something to do.

Orange Cassidy, Dustin Rhodes, Adam Copeland, and Preston Vance vs. Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun: A soft Hit for some decent action. Vance going over due to his association with Brodie Lee was fine for a one-off tribute match.

AEW Dynamite Misses

Chris Jericho: You know what would be so much easier than playing “Judas” throughout his entire brawl to drown out any potential boos? If Jericho would simply shoot down the NDA accusations. Unless, of course, he can’t actually deny those allegations. This was embarrassing. What’s next, Tony Khan creating an Empty Arena Championship for Jericho? Oh yeah, and Ricky Starks and Sammy Guevara had a match. It was fine, but I feel bad that they and Big Bill are all being overshadowed by the Jericho controversy.

Anna Jay, Thunder Rosa, Kris Statlander, and Willow Nightingale vs. Julia Hart, Skye Blue, Saraya, and Ruby Soho: This suffered from being the second of two eight-person tag team matches on the same show. Once Vance won the first tribute match, it was obvious that Jay would win this match due to the way the broadcast team played up her history with Brodie Lee. It’s nice that AEW paid tribute to Lee, but two eight-person tag matches on one show is one too many for this viewer. If nothing else, at least Jay winning set up her title shot for the weekend, whereas I assume Preston Vance just reverts to being a sidekick for Rush.