-Overall, this was an underwhelming week for AEW television that felt a lot worse because it was three and a half hours long. A bummer given the fact that the WrestleDream PPV is on Saturday night. Obviously, AEW has had to deal with the worst possible circumstances in the last month, but had a chance to use their block of television time this week to further stories and put the hard sell on for Clockwork Carnage at the PPV. Instead, the company leaned on predictable matches to hold down their fort.
Is Mark Davis a player?
-Mark Davis got a pinfall on Jon Moxley in the show’s opening trios match this week. That’s a bold move. Davis hasn’t been presented on the same level as Moxley, but this was a conscious elevation move ahead of their Continental Championship match at WrestleDream. I’d say you want to protect Moxley more than this, but AEW tipped their hand at what the bigger story with him is later in the show. The backstage promo with he, Renee Paquette, and Marina Shafir was the best part of the entire show. The scream that Moxley let out was painful to hear. Moxley is cracking and that’s the story. Glad to see the booking of his matches is working right along with it.
-Hey! What do you know? Adam Copeland defeated Josh Alexander to qualify for Clockwork Carnage. Geez. Never saw that one coming. Wrong! This was the first of many obvious match outcomes that gobbled up the three hour block of TV. The match was fine, but nothing special.
-After the match, Copeland revealed that he would be retiring from active wrestling at the end of 2027. Good for him. You want to see a guy like that go out the way he wants to instead of how he did when his first run ended. AEW is going to do right by him on whatever his retirement run will be. That said, I hope AEW is self-aware enough to not make this a bigger deal than it is. Restraint will be key. If they strike the right tone, not only will AEW make some money off Copeland retiring, but AEW and Copeland fans will have a special last year with him wrestling.
-It took Konosuke Takeshita much too long to beat the lowly Brian Cage. The match itself was performative and didn’t make sense at all given where each guy stands on the AEW talent hierarchy. In the end, Takeshita securing the win is best for PPV business this weekend.
Keep it simple
-Tony Khan had nothing for FTR and nothing for Motor City Machine Guns? Boom. Put them together. Khan did that and kept it fairly simple. Best of five series. Hell yes. The exact right move for two underutilized but legendary tag teams.
-Well, they weren’t all going to be home runs. The New Level have hit on most of their segments and matches since joining AEW in August. This week was a miss. Their promo in the ring didn’t make sense and leaned too much on the comedy integration with Mojo Brookzz. Their match with Swerve Strickland against Brodido for the trios titles is too serious for this kind of go-home segment. This is Swerve against Page. The ultimate rivalry. The promo didn’t do that rivalry or the stakes of this match justice.
-There is nothing wrong with Kazuchika Okada vs. Myron Reed on a special indie show somewhere in the world. On national television with what are supposed to be big-time stakes? Not so much. Reed isn’t even close to Okada’s level in terms of star power and notoriety in AEW. He’s a jobber in comparison and had to try and present as a viable opponent and world title contender. It was an impossible task.
Money left on the table
-The only way for the women’s trios match to even kind of work this week was if it positioned either Mercedes Mone or Thekla as a heel. That didn’t happen. Instead, the crowd sat on their hands and didn’t cheer as the six heels that nobody likes duked it out. Talk about money being left on the table? How do you not get a microphone in Thekla’s hand as a way to put a final bow on the build? Huge missed opportunity and the match isn’t nearly as shined up as it could have been.
-Oh, I guess the tag team main event to wrap up the Dynamite portion of the program this week worked well enough. The match was good and Ospreay didn’t overdo it. It didn’t give Clockwork Carnage much juice and that’s the biggest fault of the entire show.
-Ricochet beat Ace Austin to qualify for Clockwork Carnage. Duh. The match was good and featured some cool acrobatics from both guys. Zero drama.
-If you watched the Nick Wayne and Chris Jericho segment this week and complained about Wayne overacting, the segment had the intended impact. Wayne was laying on the smugness to the highest of levels. He had to go all-in on it and he did. Good for him. This is where Jericho is now. For Wayne’s character to work long-term it needs to be more than just smug. There has to be an unhinged danger to it as well. I’d be seriously thinking about a major beatdown heat segment with Jericho after a Wayne victory on PPV.
What’s with Britt?
-Wow, did anyone else feel a little bad for Britt Baker this week? She walked onto the entrance ramp swinging around a Pittsburgh Steeler rally towel in an attempt to get heat from Cleveland and nobody cared. She even looked surprised at the lack of a reaction. Baker is in an odd spot. She’s come back into the AEW fold essentially as a manager and has kept her entire bit the same. Persephone is strong without her. The tag match existed to simply get to the fatal four-way TBS Championship match at WrestleDream. Mission accomplished.
-Hell yeah! That was absolutely an Ilja Dragunov vignette. That dude has potential matches of the year waiting for him with like ten other opponents in AEW.
The wrong tone
-Darby Allin? Welcome to Clockwork Carnage. Allin defeated Hechicero because of course he did. Tony Khan tried to build in a little sizzle with Clockwork Carnage thanks to a brawl between it’s competitors to end the night. Meh. The audience was cooked and didn’t react all that strongly. Plus, is that the match? Chaos? Maybe. AEW didn’t do enough in the build to define it, so we don’t know for sure. I believe AEW has more of a technical match on their hands here and less of something that is strictly a wild brawl. The final show angle led things in the wrong direction and with the wrong tone.
What was your favorite part of this week’s AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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