By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Bryan Danielson vs. Hangman Page in the finals the men’s Owen Hart Cup tournament with Jeff Jarrett as special enforcer: A pay-per-view caliber match. Danielson going over did not feel entirely predictable given Page’s bloody history with Swerve Strickland. The involvement of Jeff Jarrett as special enforcer turned out to be fine since he called the match down the middle despite losing to Page in round one. Danielson did a recent round of media interviews downplaying the idea of him ever winning the AEW World Championship, so I hope he has a hell of a promo in mind to convince fans that he had a change of heart. Page joining The Elite’s team for Blood & Guts felt like it was done so that he can get his hands on Swerve Strickland rather than this setting up a long term alliance between Page and the Young Bucks.
Mariah May vs. Willow Nightingale in the finals the women’s Owen Hart Cup tournament: The first two rounds of both tournaments felt predictable, but both culminated with finals that felt like they could have gone either way. May winning the women’s tournament sets the table for the showdown match with Toni Storm that has been months in the making. I really could have done without the needless interference from Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway, but fortunately that didn’t play into the finish. The post match angle with May attacking Storm caught me by surprise. I thought they would spend the next couple of weeks setting the table for a turn. Rather, they went for shock value by having May violently attack Storm and Luther in what turned out to be a memorable show closing angle. The use of blood didn’t bother me, but I know it wasn’t for everyone. I just wish AEW had been better about saving blood for it for when it really counts so that this would have packed even more of a punch.
Will Ospreay and MJF: Ospreay delivered a solid promo and the MJF video promo portion was also strong. I’m shocked that we’re getting the first match between these two on Dynamite as opposed to it being saved for pay-per-view. After years of developing a reputation for sitting on big matches for far too long, Tony Khan is clearly trying to boost his ratings by putting some high end matches on the company’s flagship television show. If anything, I’m surprised this is happening now when Khan could have tried to stop the bleeding sooner.
Pac vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Tomohiro Ishii in a four-way for a shot at the AEW International Championship: An good four-way spot-fest. Kyle Fletcher was the MVP of the match in terms of taking big bumps and making his opponents shine. Pac winning is fine, but they they did a poor job of letting viewers know whether he will get his title shot on television or if the match will take place at Wembley Stadium.
Mercedes Mone and Britt Baker: A soft Hit for a basic follow-up segment to last week’s confrontation. There is still a lot of time to between now and their All In match. As such, it was wise to keep the program fresh in the minds of viewers without doing too much too soon and running the risk that the build will peak well in advance of the match.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Chris Jericho vs. Samoa Joe in a Stampede Street Fight: The Learning Tree violently attacked Joe, Hook, and Katsuyorhi Shibata last week, so it was strange to see Joe make a standard entrance as opposed to looking like a man hellbent on getting revenge. The brawl was fine, but the backstage angle with Joe being laid out on a pallet that Jericho drove through drywall by using a forklift was comically bad. Worse yet, it’s assumed that this tame angle was meant to write out Joe while he films season two of Twisted Metal. Hey, maybe when Joe returns he’ll actually show some interest in regaining the AEW World Championship. Nah.
Swerve Strickland promo: A soft Miss for a promo that just had too much going on. Swerve spoke about Danielson winning the tournament before announcing his own entry in the Blood & Guts match, and then randomly challenged Kazuchika Okada to a champion vs. champion match out of nowhere. I’d be a lot more excited if they had set up a unification match meant to scale back on the absurd number of title belts.
When Jericho took off his belt to beat Joe with it, he was the 2nd person to do that.
Storm was at least the 2nd person to take a massive beatdown on the night, and at least the 2nd person to bleed on the night.
Ospreay was the 1st of 40+ people to end their promo with a pause and then say “bitch.”
I know there are tons of people backstage in AEW who know 40000000x more about pro wrestling than I do. Why isn’t there 1 person who can convince TK to spread things out and not step all over the same spot, words, etc?
Yep, AEW really needs to cool it with the bloodletting, and ESPECIALLY people kissing and drinking blood. It isn’t shocking, it’s gross.
Like top rope piledrivers that people kick out of, and the needless, repetitive swearing that Clay mentioned, the AEW audience is left with no move, promo or blood spot that is truly surprising or engaging.
The most effective part of May turning on Storm was the fact the audience is emotionally invested in their act. The blood was needless because people cared about the characters.
Ospreay was on the internet today, apologizing for part of his promo that said MJF wasn’t offered big time money by TK in the so-called bidding war. That apology sounds like MJF was giving him grief backstage, more than the producers of the segment.
But if it was an issue, why not have TK tweet something worthwhile for once, saying MJF was worth every penny, instead of your top guy apologizing, saying he was having a bad night, etc., for a flub absolutely no one noticed?
Agree totally, Steve. Apologizing for that line in the promo was ridiculous. “Truly sorry for misspeaking a little about the guy I hate.” I’d love to see Drew or Punk apologize in that same way lol.
AEW-5 men’s singles championships
WWE- 5 men’s singles championships
Absurd indeed
AEW has 12 men’s championship between singles and tag/trios. The ROH belts show up there enough and it’s the same company.
If you want to pretend that ROH doesn’t count, it’s still 7 for AEW to 6 for WWE despite WWE 2 more hours of TV each week. WWE also does a pretty good job of keeping belts on one show so there’s no overkill of every belt being on every show without any rhyme or reason.
WWE has a world title and a secondary title on both shows. AEW has one world title and three secondary titles. I don’t count the silly Speed title or the FTW title. The AEW count would be acceptable if they split the roster and turned the Continental Title into the other brand’s world championship. But the current arrangement is a mess. Since you’re defending this, maybe you can you tell me whether the TNT or International or Continental championship is second in the pecking order? Does one of those titles actually mean more the others?
I am not defending AEW or WWE. I think they both have too many belts. I never liked the fact WWE has two world championships because of a brand spilt. Seems rather silly since most viewers watch both products and the products continually shift rosters. AEW should only have 2 or 3 belts on the men’s slide.
LOL you are one miserable soul, and it is hilarious. See you in the comment section of the next column about the product you hate yet can’t leave alone…
Wow…how shocking…every “hit” has a negative comment. Haven’t seen that since the last “hit list” about and AEW show.
I always laugh when people say a company “threw away” a PPV-caliber match on “free” tv. Yeah, lets knock a company (and it happens to AEW and WWE, although of course more with AEW since they have a much more talented roster overall) that puts on a great match on something other than a PPV.
Fans hate that.
You should try reading as opposed to making shit up, Angry Mike. Please point out all these negatives comments you mentioned. I’ll wait. I didn’t even write that they are throwing away anything. I said it surprised me. Take off the fanboy glasses and pay attention.
If Aew’s roster is much more talented than WWE’s, then they should be in the same ratings galaxy as WWE. If you just mean their talent is more suited for banger matches, that’s probably true.