-A very interesting start to the show this week and I very much liked it. Seeing the talent in the backstage area preparing for whatever was coming for them on the show helped establish the AEW ecosystem where storylines take place. This is essentially a carbon copy of what WWE has started doing at the start of their shows, but that certainly doesn’t make it bad. It’s effective and AEW Dynamite needs “effective” wherever it can find it.
Can they get along?!
-The promo with Jay White and Orange Cassidy to really start the show set a nice hook for the main event. Yes, it was the tired, “can the babyfaces get along” story, but it is what it is. If that’s the story, then tell that story as best as possible. By the end of the night they did that.
-Yeah, I liked Mercedes Mone vs. Anna Jay. A totally fine television title defense for Mone. It exposed Jay quite a bit, though. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t bad or anything. Far from it. Jay kept up with Mone just fine. The thing is, it felt as if Mone was slowing down her game for her opponent. That’s the sign of a good worker because the goal is to put on a good match together, but clearly Mone is levels above where Jay is now.
-FTR vs. The Death Riders should be a fun way to start the year in 2025. I’d look for Adam Copeland to be the “help” FTR is talking about. Could we see Moxley vs. Copeland on PPV in 2025? That’s a nice match for AEW.
Make it stop
-Somebody take this MJF vs. Adam Cole feud out back. It has to end. Nobody is better off because of it and nobody in the audience cares anymore. Listen to that audience when Cole appears and then attacks MJF. Barely as response and certainly not a hot one. It’s time. End this thing.
-Another week and another totally fine next chapter in the Hook vs. Christian Cage storyline. It’s not fancy, but it works. Thumbs up.
-A pretty good promo from Mariah May this week. The title defense against Thunder Rosa is clearly one that they have lined up so she can knock down, but every championship run needs those. They could make this better by making things more personal between Rosa and May. May started down that road by bringing up Rosa’s father, but we need more — including a passionate response from Rosa.
Noooooooooo
-Ok. Ok, ok, ok. Somebody needs to tell Ricochet to not ever do that laugh thing ever again. It’s so unbecoming and he comes across like a guy that has no idea who he is. The best thing for Ricochet right now would be a spot alongside MVP in The Hurt Syndicate. They tore up his card this week, but that move is still very much on the table and should be seriously considered in order to get a most out of the Ricochet investment.
-Good little Continental Classic match between Shelton Benjamin and The Beast Mortos. If Benjamin is going to be in a top faction like Hurt Syndicate, these wins are important.
-This Toni Storm amnesia stuff is tremendous. She’s playing it perfectly and the audience is going to pop huge when the time comes and she remembers everything. More and more, Storm is showing how and why she’s a face of AEW.
A TV classic
-Man, what a match between Darby Allin and Will Ospreay. Just tremendous. Both stayed within their styles, but did enough to mesh those styles together in a near perfect way to make the match memorable. Darby is a lunatic. The Coffin Drop onto the apron is always vicious, but since his spine hit the dang corner of the ring, it looked so much worse this time around. Darby beating Ospreay cleanly is a big deal and should be treated as such. Had he not already lost to Claudio Castagnoli and Brody King recently, it would have meant even more.
-The main event went exactly as you’d expect. The babyfaces did not get along and then they lost. It’s kinda how the match had to go since the ultimate goal is to build a fatal four-way match at Worlds End. This did that. It just wasn’t all that compelling.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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