-Rejoice! Will Ospreay and The Death Riders are effectively done — at least for now. Between the opening of the show this week and the promo late in the show about Moxley and the Continental Cup, it’s safe to say that their angle together has wrapped up and the two guys are going different directions. This makes me happy. It doesn’t undo the weirdness of the angle to begin with, but it does set course for a straight up Kenny Omega feud with Ospreay for All In. The Death Riders hovering around this match would have been a needless distraction that wouldn’t have added much in terms of intrigue. There is more intrigue around the influence of The Death Riders on Ospreay being a wedge in the Ospreay and Omega relationship.
-Ospreay came across as likable and noble in handing back the Death Rider patch and leaving the group. That’s the vibe you want your top babyface to have heading into the biggest match of the year on the biggest show of the year.
-Now, AEW removed Moxley from the Ospreay and Omega equation, but then added in a little Adam Page. I don’t think we are going to see Page play a significant role in the Omega and Ospreay saga, but by Ospreay turning down Page’s offer for help, it very much setup an Ospreay against the world type mountain for him to climb. Like, the only person he can trust is himself. I think that works when the idea will be to have the entire Wembley Stadium audience on his side and backing him at All In.
-I’m not sure a match in AEW’s history was more AEW Dynamite in style than the triple threat this week between Andrade El Idolo, Jack Perry, and Nick Wayne. There was a lot wrong with this match — standing around, waiting for spots, the unabashed positioning of bodies for spots. All of that was there. It was exciting as hell, though. The spots were crisp and the entire audience just ate it up. It was a portion of the show that super-served the fan that loves this type of action.
-Andrade El Idolo … let’s talk about him more. He’s got something cooking right now and it’s not just the “how you know” catchphrase. The guy looks comfortable. The promos he’s cutting are authentic. Not perfect english or anything like that, but it works incredibly well because it’s real. More than ever before he’s been able to show a personality ever since returning to AEW. He keeps angling toward a match against MJF at All In. Safe to say that’s a go for launch at this point and that’s a big spot for him.
-Is there anything more classic in pro wrestling than a title challenger winning a tag team match that involves the current champion they’re set to face in the name of securing momentum? I love how concepts like this one cross generations of pro wrestlers. Mike Bailey was the momentum recipient this week. A win over Team Kyle Fletcher. Now that he has the momentum, look for him to lose his match against Fletcher next week. Clockwork.
-Ok, here’s the deal. In a vacuum, the sit-down interview between The Young Bucks and Copeland & Cage was excellent. Emotional, fun, novel, and a segment that pulled in some real dream match vibes. With that said, there are way too many of these exact types of babyface vs. babyface matches happening in the wrestling industry right now. It’s insane. Most of the SummerSlam card is full of those this weekend. If I’m Tony Khan, I’m looking at running counter to that trend rather than embracing it. Good vs. bad creates better investment than good vs. good. Pro wrestling has worked well off that formula for a century.
-We saw the first TBS Championship title defense from Maya World this week. Persephone did the job for World and the match was fine. Tony Khan struck while the iron was hot with World. She now has to step up a level and deliver. This week’s outing wasn’t bad, but it didn’t blow things out of the water for her either.
-Segment of the week goes to Mercedes Mone and Willow Nightingale. In case you forgot — what you saw out there between those two women? That’s pro wrestling. Nightingale beautifully spoke about her world title win when she cracked the mic. She’s genuine and the audience reacted to her as such. How do you know they were invested? Mercedes Mone got booed out of the building when she eventually walked out. Mone hasn’t gotten that much real heat in a long time. Just a wonderful dynamic on display between them. Clear lines and a clear emotion that the writing wants the audience to feel.
-Komander and Jon Moxley wrestled a nice little match this week. Yay? It seems like these two have wrestled every week for the last 11 weeks.
-Sidebar. Moxley mentioned something about the Continental Cup. Is this a new tournament? If you know or have a good guess, drop it in the comments. Moxley brought this up in a promo, but nothing really came of it after that. Maybe I’m imagining things. This happened, right?
-I’m not sure The Demand needs to be six stars deep, but that’s exactly where the faction is at after this week. They’re also the AEW World Trios Champions after beating The Conglomeration. On the flip side, I’m absolutely sure the show didn’t need a 30-MINUTE overrun this week to accomodate this match. By the time this match went on, the audience felt ready for the Kenny Omega segment and were clock watching instead of actively immersing themselves in the story. It felt like a filler match, but one that had quite a lot riding on it by the end.
-As we talked about, the show opening segment this week with Ospreay and The Death Riders opened the door for all things to revolve around Ospreay and Kenny Omega. Ospreay and Omega walked through that door during the main event segment. Really good stuff from both of those guys. Ospreay and Omega didn’t perfectly catch every single ball they were juggling in terms of story, but they nearly did and made sure to catch the important ones. Omega had to explain why he dropped Ospreay at the end of Redemption. He did. Ospreay had to address his allegiance with The Death Riders in a way that would mean something to his story with Omega. He did. All of that led to Ospreay slapping Omega and then cutting the babyface promo of his life. In talking about winning the world title in front of his family and in his home country, Ospreay put it all on the line. The product is more interesting when babyfaces do that. This segment hooked interest for all future build segments between these two. Off to the races we go.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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