By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Will Ospreay vs. Rey Fenix for the AEW International Championship: A good television main event. This wasn’t the insane spot-fest that I expected, which is not a bad thing. They worked a quality match with some impressive moments along the way. The post match angle with Ospreay and Swerve Strickland was a big Hit. I like the dynamic that there is a friendship between the two that seems to be deteriorating as we get closer to the Forbidden Door main event. Swerve made the segment feel tense. The Killshot line about how he will pull the trigger if his opponent fails to do so certainly played into the speculation that Ospreay’s reluctance to use the Tiger Driver will end up being the deciding moment of their match.
Jack Perry vs. Dustin Rhodes in a qualifier for the ladder match for the vacant TNT Championship at Forbidden Door: The usual Dustin formula with a ring post spot followed by a big blade job. It’s repetitive and yet effective because his television matches are infrequent. The spot at the end of the match with the referee missing the low blow looked off, but this was an enjoyable match otherwise. The big storyline gap is that there’s been no explanation for why Tony Khan would give Perry with a qualifying match after Perry attacked him.
MJF and Rush: It was a pleasant surprise when the unadvertised MJF headed to the ring after Rush’s squash win. They had a spirited brawl and did a nice job of setting the table for next week’s match. I’m surprised we’re getting their first match on television rather than pay-per-view, but there’s nothing wrong with holding the match on television if it’s given the proper build. They did a good job of driving home that the match will open next week’s show and will air without commercial interruptions.
Mercedes Mone vs. Zeuxis for the TBS Championship: In a perfect world, Zeuxis would have been featured on AEW television for a few weeks before she faced Mone. That said, it was an enjoyable match and a good win for Mone. I’m still not sure whether Mone is a babyface or a heel from week to week, so hopefully they can do a better job of making that clear.
Konosuke Takeshita, Roderick Strong, and Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe, Kyle O’Reilly, and Orange Cassidy: A big spot fest six-man tag match. It was good to see Fletcher go over for his team given that he rarely wins in AEW. Sadly, something similar can be said about Takeshita these days. Push that man. The Briscoe promo that preceded the match was classic Mark.
Samoa Joe and Hook vs. “The Premier Athletes” Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese: This was exactly what it needed to be with Joe and Hook plowing through Daivari and Nese rather than having a needlessly competitive match. I get a kick out of the trivial conversations that Joe and Hook have right before they switch into ass kicker mode.
AEW Dynamite Hits
TV Time with Chris Jericho and guests Private Party: The Jericho act continues to be a major turnoff for this viewer. The character feels so fake with zero explanation offered for his personality shift. I’m giving it more time because Jericho has been a master of reinvention over the years, but it hasn’t worked for me thus far.
Daniel Garcia vs. Nick Comoroto: A soft Miss for Garcia continuing to feel ice cold as a character. I’m high on Garcia, but he’s in a bad place with the nice guy promos and Matt Menard hanging by his side. I’m sure they were setting up future television matches and it may have made Garcia feel a little more important, but it still felt forced to see top stars Will Ospreay and MJF watching Garcia’s match when he’s been spinning his wheels for so long. Here’s hoping the company can get the talented Garcia back on track.
The Elite issue the Blood & Guts challenge: A soft Miss for the strange call to have the heels issue the challenge for the WarGames style match. This was an opportunity to have Tony Khan (via Christopher Daniels) force The Elite into the match as a form of punishment for their recent actions. It would have felt more believable had the Young Bucks squirmed at the thought of being forced to work the company’s most dangerous match as opposed to calling for it. Or perhaps Jack Perry or Kazuchika Okada could have issued the challenge and then the Bucks could have reacted with trepidation. On the bright side, AEW is going with MJF vs. Rush next week and they are holding the Blood & Guts match on Dynamite next month. It’s good to see the company going with some meaningful television matches, which should help in the ratings.
??The big storyline gap is that there’s been no explanation for why Tony Khan would give Perry with a qualifying match after Perry attacked him.>>
>>The character feels so fake with zero explanation offered for his personality shift. <> This was an opportunity to have Tony Khan (via Christopher Daniels) force The Elite into the match as a form of punishment for their recent actions. <<
Again, as so many of us have been saying for far too long, those of us who are fans of AEW and also are honest have no issue BEGGING Tony to get someone in there who can be in charge of long or short term storylines. That would make SUCH a big difference.
ON a sidenote, there are a lot of us who have a lot of respect for Jericho being around so long, but most of us agree the "new character every two months" thing is beyond boring now.
I agree with MJoseph. I’m def not an AEW fan these days but I AM a wrestling fan and I’m annoyed that a lot of talented people are not being utilized to their full potential
You know how when a company is in financial trouble they have a hiring freeze? Well AEW should have a six month freeze of no new talent on TV. Make a better use of the people you already have and please stop peppering in people from other random little-followed-in-the-US promotions!
A new Booker would be great. Prob more a committee of people in charge of different “divisions” but with good communications (you know so we don’t see the same finish 3x in a show)
Tony is probably a good guy. He is a super fan with a ton of money. But he has some Herb Abrams vibes and a better organized company would be beneficial because AEW has plenty of really good wrestlers
A booker with a committee under them would be great. They don’t have an experienced booker, but there are several veterans they could give a shot.
Not only do they need a hiring freeze, they need to clear out a lot of the existing roster. They’ve got 192 people signed. You could safely cut half of them from being full time roster members and just use them as enhancement talent as needed, and nothing would suffer.
Next, drop 3 belts (FTW, Trios, and 1 more).
After that, they’ve got to scale way back on all the gimmick matches, interference, etc. and logically build to something for once.
Tony is not a good guy. He got into twitter spats with Jaguar players who demanded trades after that. He’s so hated by Fulham fans that they’ve actually brought anti Tony signs to games. When one fan tweeted at him to leave the club, he literally told them to go to hell. One even had a sign that said Tony Khan Wanks Dogs.
Tony is a piece of shit who tries to play himself off as a good guy. When Vince was the other major wrestling promoter, Tony could get away with it. Now that it’s HHH, we’re seeing the real Tony get exposed over and over again.