By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Kyle Fletcher and Will Ospreay: Fletcher has really risen to the occasion since his singles push started. He has shined in the ring since arriving in AEW, but his strong mic work has been a pleasant surprise. The new look works and Fletcher stands out as one of the brightest of the young stars the company can build around. Meanwhile, Ospreay brought an intensity to the promo and they both did a nice job of setting the stage for their Full Gear match.
Malakai Black and Brody King vs. “FTR” Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler in a qualifying match for a spot in the four-way match for the AEW Tag Team Titles at Full Gear: This didn’t stand out on paper as a Dynamite main event and only time will tell how it performed in the ratings. We’ve seen better matches from both teams, but it was still a good match and the outcome with Black and King going over was truly surprising. The House of Black members have all shown good sportsmanship lately with their post match handshakes. This doesn’t really fit with their dark vibe, so perhaps they are shaking things up creatively.
Swerve Strickland vs. Lio Rush: I came away with mixed feelings. I settled on a Hit because it was well worked and it was one of the only matches the flat crowd seemed to get up for. But it does seem strange for Swerve to have such a competitive match with a small wrestler while they are building him up for a match with gigantic Bobby Lashley. The post match angle with Swerve and Prince Nana being the only two people in the building who didn’t figure out that Shelton Benjamin was going to attack them was rough.
Orange Cassidy: Another good promo from a guy who doesn’t normally do a lot of talking. Conversely, Jon Moxley is typically a great promo, but I didn’t include him in the Hit because he had a rare off night on the mic. Even so, the build to Moxley vs. Cassidy has been good thus far.
Britt Baker vs. Penelope Ford: A soft Hit for a decent match. Ford is solid on the mic and more than holds her own in the ring. I’ve never understood why she’s cast as a good hand who puts over the stars when she has the potential to actually be one of the stars of the women’s division. The only truly annoying part of the match was watching babyface Baker look foolish by playing to the crowd and being hit from behind on two separate occasions. Serena Deeb coming out after the match to set up a match with Baker felt really flat.
AEW Dynamite Misses
AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. Adam Cole in a non-title match: AEW has a long history of making referees look bad, but it was especially dreadful in this case. Cole lightly pushed aside the referee, who then just walked toward a corner of the ring long enough to miss Takeshita hitting Cole with the Dynamite Diamond Ring. This terrible finish ruined what was an otherwise good match.
Roderick Strong vs. Lance Archer in a Falls Count Anywhere match: Wait, so after teasing viewers with MJF vs. Adam Cole and then teasing a Triple Threat involving Strong, they are actually going with MJF vs. Strong? Weird. The action was solid throughout this brawl, but I’m not a fan of building up Archer and Brian Cage as a badass tag team only to turn around and have Archer lose a singles match. Why is AEW still focusing on the drama involving The Kingdom turned Undisputed Era turned Undisputed Kingdom? They have teamed and/or feuded in three different companies now and it stopped being interesting during their run in the second company. Move on already.
Hangman Page and Christian Cage vs. Jay White and Juice Robinson: A bad referee finish ruined another match. It looked like Mother Wayne messed up the spot by prematurely distracting the referee. Either way, they were going to kick off the show with a bad distraction finish. Yes, WWE does bad distraction finishes too. It’s actually more frustrating when AEW does them because they are supposed to be the alternative. They had better finishes during the early days of the promotion, but now they consistently emulate one of WWE’s worst habits.
There’s things fundamentally wrong with Aew’s booking, but announcing Mox would seize control of TBS, etc and then him doing the same or less than usual is inexplicable. Just like “Title Tuesday” had nada to do with title matches. Should not be hard to deliver on a theme, what’s promoted, etc.
Is there anything more inexplicable in the world of wrestling than Mother Wayne’s status as an onscreen performer?
How long before MJoey shows up with his usual crying about Jason not giving AEW a 100% positive rating on everything they do(that doesn’t involve minorities, that is)?