-I continue to very much enjoy the cold open that AEW has done on Dynamite the last two weeks. It serves the smart purpose of focusing the audience’s attention right away on who is the main star and what is the main storyline. Good stuff.
-Roderick Strong continues to be shut off the television bad. I get that he’s supposed to be obnoxious, but c’mon already. When he does turn on MJF and side with a heel Adam Cole, he’s going to irreparable as an act to be taken seriously.
-Thumbs up to Daniel Garcia vs. MJF. The best thing about this match was that it wasn’t a knock out, drag out, great match. It shouldn’t have been an didn’t need to be. MJF is clearly a better and stronger wrestler in the narrative of AEW overall. Dusting Garcia in just 10 minutes, while probably not as exciting as a 25 min classic, made more sense for the story of MJF right now. Smart.
-Nice to see Sting and Darby Allin get a squash victory over some jobbers. A big focus of AEW this winter is going to be Sting’s retirement tour and you can’t ask him for long matches every week. This is a smart way to get him on television without asking too much of his sixty plus year old body.
-I continue to enjoy Toni Storm’s new gimmick. It’s unique, compelling, and so far has played just fine within the cannon of winning matches in the ring. She’s still in the heel role going up against Hikaru Shida at Full Gear, but fans clearly want to cheer her. Tony Khan should pivot that direction while the gimmick has momentum. Who knows how long it will last.
-The presentation of Swerve Strickland continues to be one the best things on the show this week and his match this week against Penta was no different. Strickland looked like a star, competed like a star, and got a victory like a star. AEW has had a rough summer and fall, but what they’ve done with Swerve is top level stuff.
-Hey!!! It’s serious “Hangman” Adam Page everyone! Boy, nice to see him back. Page has a serious mean streak in him, but only uses it once in a blue moon. Fans get behind the bad ass Page more than they do the mopey Page and he plays the second role way too much. The attack on Swerve this week was an excellent chapter in their story on the way to Full Gear in a little over a week.
-Both Jay White and Mark Briscoe got promo time on the show ahead of their main event match. The match stipulation of White’s number one contender status being on the line was nonsensical, but White and Briscoe built anticipation with their promos. White leaned hard on MJF. Maybe we get a rebuttal from MJF next week on the go home Dynamite?
-Well, we’re in for more Elite drama. The Kenny Omega and Young Bucks confrontation this week was good, though it does seem like we’ve seen this story before. The callbacks to previous matches between them was effective to give historical context to everything going on. Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho vs. The Young Bucks on PPV has the makings of a show stealer, but I have to think Don Callis gets involved somehow. Do The Young Bucks join The Callis Family?
-Samoa Joe vs. Keith Lee was fine, but the best part of the match was Joe relinquishing the ROH World Television Championship after his win. Joe is an AEW guy full on at this point. It doesn’t make sense for anyone to have their ROH titles on AEW programming, but especially Joe. The ROH TV Championship put a ceiling on what Joe could accomplish in AEW. That’s gone and he immediately becomes someone who can play up at the top of the card.
-Strong work from The Gunns this week. Simple and to the point with their match and promo, but effective in conveying who they are and what they do. Thumbs up to more of this on Dynamite, please.
-Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy both cut compelling promos on one another ahead of their Full Gear PPV match. There is a strong rivalry here and special kind of intensity that not many AEW feuds have. A lot of that has to do with Jon Moxley, but Cassidy’s underdog nature and personality help quite a bit too.
-A definitive win for Julia Hart was good to see. She’s one of the hotter women’s acts that AEW has right now. Run with her, Tony Khan. Run.
-Jay White vs. Mark Briscoe was very good. With the outcome fully flushed out and known thanks to the silly stipulation, the goal here was getting the audience to shred reason and buy Briscoe winning. I’m not sure they got that far, but they got pretty close. The action was strong and White winning in the end was clearly the right move. White has had a great two months in AEW. He looks every bit the part of a top heel and I’m going with him if I’m Tony Khan. MJF on the chase is better than him as champion at this point.
-Was that a mission statement promo from MJF? Sure was. Great stuff. He gave a reason for him doing what he’s been doing and acting like he’s acting for the first time ever. The babyface turn kind of makes sense now and his goal is out there for the world to get behind. Great stuff to end the show.