By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Will Ospreay vs. MJF for the AEW International Championship: An excellent match from start to finish, which is really saying something given that it went two seconds shy of an hour. MJF stealing the pin by using the Dynamite Diamond Ring was so much better than the match going to a time limit draw. This finish was true to the MJF heel character and Ospreay was protected. But AEW has to do something about their title belts. I cared about this match because of who was involved and not because of the championship they were fighting over. The company has three secondary men’s singles championships that feel equal in value. Ospreay and MJF feuding over a title should raise the value of that championship and yet it doesn’t feel like the AEW International Title means any more today than it did yesterday despite the wrestlers tearing the house down.
Mariah May promo: “What” chants? Really? It’s bad enough that those chants still occur at WWE events and now they’ve bled over to AEW. It’s a shame because May delivered a good performance. Credit to May and whoever has helped her successfully pull off Storm’s look as the Motley Crue loving rocker and now as the Timeless character.
TV Time with guest Minoru Suzuki: The Learning Tree gimmick is still dreadful, but this segment registered as a mild Hit for being brief and to the point. I must confess that I got a chuckle out of seeing Suzuki stand in front of the ridiculous TV Time set.
AEW Dynamite Misses
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada in a champion vs. champion match: With the proper build, this match could have actually meant something (well, at least it could have before Okada became the kooky foreign guy who says “bitch” every week and is now horny when Mercedes Mone is around). Rather, this was just thrown together with no build because it was nothing more than a way to get to the obligatory brawl involving the Blood & Guts participants. On a side note, the build to Blood & Guts has been lousy. Much like when Team AEW faced The Elite in Anarchy in the Arena, there’s nothing at stake. And I still can’t get over that it was the Young Bucks who asked for a match that their pest heel characters should want nothing to do with. Regardless of which side wins, it looks like the EVPs will continue to make low stakes power moves that Tony Khan’s character should be able to overrule and yet never does. This story really needs to end and yet there’s no sign that it will.
Mercedes Mone vs. Nyla Rose for the TBS Title: I don’t know if it was lack of familiarity, but it seemed like Rose was being extra cautious while working with Mone. You had to know something was up when Mone thanked the EVPs for banning Britt Baker from the backstage area rather than the full building. Even so, the live crowd popped and actually seemed surprised when “the fan” that pie-faced Mone unmasked and revealed herself to be Baker.
Be the first to comment