By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet for the AEW International Title: A strong high spot match. The initial draw finish seemed to generate more heat than anything else on the show. It also appeared to soften the blow for the actual finish of Konosuke Takeshita interfering, as the fans were fairly quiet as opposed to booing loudly. Did Takeshita interfere to set up a three-way match at WrestleDream? If so, please tell me Takeshita isn’t in the match just to take another loss.
Hangman Page vs. Juice Robinson: This was a good brawl. Page shouldn’t have to cheat to win all of his matches now that he’s a heel, but at least the company moved on from the shades of gray approach. Jay White returning to save Robinson sets up a White vs. Page match that looks really good on paper.
Shelton Benjamin debuts: Benjamin’s surprise appearance received one of the biggest pops of the night. All signs continue to point to Bobby Lashley showing up for a newly named version of The Hurt Business.
Opening cinematic, the Darby Allin video, and flashback videos: It was good to see AEW finally celebrate some of its history by showing footage from notable matches and segments during a milestone show. The opening video with Jon Moxley and his crew was well done and had an ominous feel to it. Now just imagine if the same video offered fans a definitive hook to keep them watching throughout the night. AEW feels cold in a so many ways and they really need this Moxley storyline to click and give the company a big boost. Allin’s video promo was one of the real highlights of the show. Has anyone in the business has shown more improvement on promos than Allin has since his arrival in AEW?
Britt Baker vs. Serena Deeb: An in the middle for a mostly well worked match that overstayed its welcome. Queen Aminata saving Baker from a post match attack felt flat.
“Private Party” Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy defeated “Iron Savages” Bronson and Boulder: Another in the middle segment. It was nice to see a brief match to shake things up, but it feels like AEW creative is scrambling to build up Private Party for a tag team title match at WrestleDream. What’s the rush? Why not go with a different tag team title match for now while the creative forces actually put in the work to build up Quen and Kassidy?
AEW Dynamite Misses
AEW Champion Bryan Danielson vs. Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada for both titles: Yes, it was a Hit from a match quality standpoint, but it also made for a disappointing finish to the show. AEW advertised two big matches for their anniversary edition of Dynamite and both concluded with weak finishes. It would have been asking a lot for both matches to have clean finishes and it was logical to avoid a clean finish in the Ospreay vs. Ricochet match, but did we really need a distraction finish in this main event? The match felt nowhere near as special as their first two matches. AEW announced this match out of nowhere on social media just days before the show. The rules of the match weren’t as confusing as some, including MJF, made them out to be. But Tony Khan boasts that he books for the sickos, and therefore he should know that those fans are the most likely to figure out that the match was going past the 20-minute mark so that Okada could lose without dropping his title. The post match angle set up a non-title tag team match, which is the only match the company has advertised for a show billed as Title Tuesday. Strange.
TV Time talkshow: The quiet reaction from the live crowd to Jericho challenging Mark Briscoe for the ROH Championship at WrestleDream was very telling. The average AEW fan just doesn’t care about the ROH Championship. Sure, you can make an argument that the goal of this match is to change that, but it’s an uphill battle given the number of title belts that are featured on AEW television. Jericho bringing up Jay Briscoe to get to Mark is comparable to Christian Cage taking shots at the deceased fathers of his adversaries. But bringing up Jay seemed to turn off the fans more than it generated the type of heat that Christian gets. All of that said, Jericho reaching the 34th anniversary of his first pro wrestling match is a very impressive milestone.
Bringing up Jay was beyond unnecessary in this mid/low card feud. It’s the same effect of talent yelling “bitch!” in half of Aew’s promos.