Powell’s AEW Dynamite Hit List: Samoa Joe vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Swerve Strickland, Mark Briscoe, and Mike Bailey vs. Ricochet and The Young Bucks, Nick Wayne vs. Rhino for the ROH TV Title

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

AEW Dynamite Hits

Hangman Page and Will Ospreay: AEW doesn’t open many shows with in-ring promos, but this was a good one. Page questioned why the fans cheer him despite his misdeeds, and yet also let them know he appreciates the support. He put an end to his feud with Swerve Strickland, and then had a tense exchange with Will Ospreay to set up their match at AEW Double Or Nothing. I wasn’t a fan of Don Callis coming out when he did because it was the latest case of wrestling personalities being morons for interrupting two bickering adversaries before they could get physical one another. Wouldn’t you want your enemies to fight each other? The tension between Page and Ospreay continued even after they agreed to face two members of the Callis Family, and this was a good way to kick off the build to the Owen Hart Cup tournament finals.

Ricochet and “The Young Bucks” Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson vs. Swerve Strickland, Mark Briscoe, and Mike Bailey: This match had all of the positives of last week’s all-star eight-man tag, minus the negatives of the silly comedy spots that made last week’s match feel campy. Matthew pinning Swerve clean was a legitimately surprising finish to a strong spot-fest trios match.

Nick Wayne vs. Rhino for the ROH TV Title: The live crowd popped big for the hometown hero surprise, even though Rhino was advertised locally. Wayne using Christian Cage’s finisher rather than his own was a nice touch. The post-match bit with Christian declining to put the title belt around Nick’s waist and then dropping it on the mat was fun. It will be interesting to see how they keep this storyline going over the next few weeks while Nick is in Japan for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm vs. Thunder Rosa vs. Anna Jay vs. Penelope Ford in a four-way eliminator match: A fun four-way match and another win for Storm. It’s cool to see Storm working so frequently. On a side note, I got a kick out of Jay’s interaction with Harley Cameron, who continues to be an enjoyable character.

Samoa Joe vs. Claudio Castagnoli: A soft Hit for a well-worked match that felt a tad underwhelming as a television main event. Even so, with Joe facing Moxley in a championship cage match next week, Joe beating Castagnoli clean was the obvious call. The post-match angle also left something to be desired, although we’ll see if Moxley declining to intervene when Castagnoli was attacked with a chair leads to friction between the two. Here’s hoping that the Death Riders meeting with the Young Bucks was done to set up an Anarchy in the Arena match for Double Or Nothing. I can take or leave the annual arena brawl, but I fear the alternative is that the meeting pertained to the Bucks using their EVP powers to help Moxley during next week’s cage match.

AEW Dynamite Misses

AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kevin Knight in an eliminator match: As I mentioned in my live review, I wish AEW would book more title matches and fewer of the silly eliminator matches. In this case, Knight hasn’t done enough to earn a title shot, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have done an angle with an overconfident Okada volunteering to put his title on the line. The reason this match fell into the Miss section was the needless pre-match attack by Rush. Knight was a heavy underdog on paper, and he shouldn’t have needed an out for losing to Okada. Furthermore, beating an injured opponent did nothing for Okada, who needs to find some of his NJPW mojo if the company is going to get the most out of his expected match with Kenny Omega at All In Texas. Yes, fans who saw their classic series in NJPW are sold on their latest match, but there are even more fans who have not seen Okada at his best.

The Hurt Syndicate has a lawyer: It was an eye-rolling moment when Lashley said the attorney advised him to wait until next week to comment on whether he intends ot give MJF a thumbs up. From a legal perspective, why would an attorney care?