By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Dynamite Hits
Swerve Strickland vs. Ricochet: AEW did a much better job of making this match feel important than they do in building up most of their television main events. They announced the match well in advance, gave it a consistent build, and plugged it several times throughout this episode. The match delivered. The finish was a clever way to make it seem like Ricochet lucked into hitting a low blow to steal the win. I’m enjoying this version of Ricochet more than I ever enjoyed his WWE main roster character.
Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher vs. Brody King and Buddy Matthews: A strong match that suffered a bit from having a predictable outcome. There was no way that Takeshita and Fletcher were going to lose clean before facing Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega at the Grand Slam Australia event. Ideally, the company would have saved this match for a time when the outcome would have felt like a mystery. I get the idea of building up Takeshita and Fletcher. In fact, it felt like they should have been booked to go over stronger, even if it meant booking them against a different team. It came off like the desire to have a good match was more important than spotlighting Takeshita and Fletcher.
The Hurt Syndicate and Gunn Club: The babyfaces had the fans with them every step of the way while the heels were obnoxious and even corny. Wait, what? The Gunns were supposed to be the babyfaces and the Hurt Syndicate are the heels? Okay, well that’s a problem, so I’ll give this a soft Hit because at least the Hurt Syndicate is over. I don’t know if the same will be true for the Gunns once they finish working with Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin, but I am looking forward to next week’s tag team title match despite the glaring issue of the heels being way cooler than the babyfaces.
MJF and Dustin Rhodes: No senior division shots this week. Although AEW has featured too many aging veterans lately, Dustin is the one they should be spotlighting. Dustin’s promos are passionate, he can still go in the ring, and the fans are always with him. In fact, I can’t think of a single match or promo that Dustin has had on AEW television that was poorly received. The same can’t be said for the other veterans the company is featuring on television these days. Unfortunately, I think this is just another case of someone remembering that AEW is going to be in Texas and doing a last minute rush job to set up Dustin with a match in his home state. I hope it’s more than that, but seeing is believing.
Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata: Storm’s latest acting performance as Mariah May was fun, but I would have gone with an enhancement wrestler as Storm’s opponent. It felt like Storm was too busy cosplaying to take the talented Aminata seriously. The competitive match was actually distracting from the impersonation and May’s reaction to it. Overall, though, the build to the May vs. Storm showdown at Grand Slam has been really good.
Hangman Page and Max Caster: Oblivious Caster interrupting Page’s promo and then suggesting that Page put Anthony Bowens and Billy Gunn in the hospital was good for a laugh. Page telling Caster that he didn’t see Bowens or Gunn seemed to set up the obvious line that he did see Caster and accepts his open challenge, but they left out the last part in favor of Page indicating that he’d love to put Caster in the hospital. Either way, I got a kick out of the dynamic between these two and the way it carried over into MJF’s promo segment.
AEW Dynamite Misses
Will Ospreay vs. Mark Davis: Forget the match quality. Don Callis did a good job of teasing a mystery member of his family during the recent mansion video on Collision. The reveal of the mystery man being Davis was a big letdown. Davis is a good wrestler, but the live crowd’s flat reaction to him being introduced as Ospreay’s mystery opponent said it all. The company would have been better off doing an angle where Davis simply joined the Callis Family rather than building him up to be an underwhelming mystery opponent.
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