-Ha! Samoa Joe gave the promo line of the week when he said he wasn’t wearing a suit because that would be like wearing a tuxedo to a petting zoo. Joe is really strong on the mic and it’s because of lines like that and not the frothing at the mouth yelling.
Joe vs. Kingston is good enough
-The Joe and Eddie Kingston back and forth worked well for what it was. Yes, it made their match at Winter Is Coming next weekend more interesting. No, it did not effectively convince anyone that Kingston had a chance in hell of beating Joe to win the championship. Still, it’s a good little TV championship program and with that as the expectation, this delivered.
-Kazuchika Okada and Pac squared off in a totally fine AEW Continental Classic this week. With Okada losing last week, it was all but certain that he’d get the victory this week, so as not to fall too behind in the tournament. Hard to create match drama with that reality flying around.
-Mark Briscoe vs. Daniel Garcia for the TNT Championship is about right at this point. That’s a low level title match, but it’s what the TNT Championship is in an AEW with too many other titles.
The AEW National Championship
-Oh hey! The new AEW National Championship is going to be defended for the first time ever on an ROH show! Yay. See above. There are too many titles in AEW. What does this National Championship mean? Nobody knows and that’s a problem.
-Man, Kyle Fletcher vs. Kevin Knight was a blast. Just an excellent display of action-packed wrestling with enough psychology sprinkled in too. Fletcher should be the star that Knight models himself after. He’s got the in-ring talent down, but needs the character to connect deeper with fans.
-We got another chapter in the Callis Family vs. Kenny Omega/Young Bucks saga. Look, people don’t care enough. I don’t want to say that people don’t care at all, but they don’t care enough for the time this is getting and the length at which the feud has gone on. Let’s be done. Kenny Omega, The Bucks, and Okada don’t have infinite time left as prime pro wrestlers. I’d like to see each move on to something more substantial that doesn’t involve the others.
Babyface vs. babyface
-A bit surprised to see Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa advance in the AEW Women’s Tag Team Championship tournament. Sure, they are bigger stars than Marina Shafir and Megan Bayne, but those two would have been perfect heels for Babes of Wrath to face and beat in the finals. Not sure why you’d want to dilute fan reaction by having two babyface teams compete against the other at the end of this thing, but alas …
-Speaking of babyface vs. babyface, Kris Statlander vs. Jaime Hayter looks like it’s getting penciled in as the next AEW Women’s Championship program. Again, see above. Why a lovable babyface for Statlander? Rolling traditional heels and building momentum is a smarter call than rushing to this for match quality purposes only.
-The Opps essentially won a squash match this week over Dark Order and it was tremendous. Nothing special from a match perspective, but it helped get the faction over and in turn, made Joe as The Opps leader and world champion more menacing. Good stuff.
Who’s house?!
-Hmmmm…I wonder who Adam Page’s partner will be next week? Who’s house??!?!?!
-Did you hear the faint Jon Moxley chants in the audience? Keep an eye on that throughout the Continental Classic. When Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli were dropped in the same tournament league, the outcome of Castagnoli over Moxley seemed inevitable. Glad they didn’t get too cute with it. This was the chapter the storyline needed.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media Newsletter HERE.
Follow Zack Heydorn on Bluesky @zackheydorn.bsky.social