-Out of the gate I have to say that this week’s Dynamite was one of the best of the year for AEW. With the Revolution PPV on Saturday night, this show pointed directly at that. The angles and matches served a purpose to give a final boost of build to the PPV and it was done in an organized way with stories and angles that made sense. All of it was fun to watch too.
Time to fight
-Swerve Strickland and Ricochet were tremendous during their contract signing. Both should refrain from talking about killing the other, but outside of that, they brought intensity, drama, and sense of finality around the hype to their match. It’s time to fight now and they conveyed that point seriously. Swerve stabbing Ricochet in the forehead with scissors and really the use of scissors as a weapon at all is too much, but since they went there with it, this angle did a nice job of putting a bow on that story on the way to to the match.
-The opening eight-man tag team match served as a backdrop to the big attack angle on Will Ospreay, but it worked in that role. The match was exciting, babyfaces won, and then Ospreay got destroyed to give Kyle Fletcher and The Don Callis Family a lot of heat going into Sunday. Nothing state of the art regarding the attack angle itself, but it put the heat where it needed to be one last time. Now, Ospreay can overcome it all and win at Revolution.
-Ok, Wheeler Yuta shaking Cope’s hand after their match was brilliant. It added a very real curveball for Jon Moxley and sent him into a tailspin like Cope wanted. It’s the classic use of reverse psychology on the part of Cope. The easy road would have been to just destroy Yuta with a chair after the match, but the more twisted approach is to treat him with respect. Cope showed that to Mox and it countered Mox’s overall messaging and how he rules over The Death Riders. It created problems in the ranks. Moxley reacted to that move in an unhinged manner, something that reasonably can bite him or help him when the bell rings and his title is on the line against Cope at Revolution.
No more fire
-The bottom line on the MJF and Adam Page angle this week is simple and direct. No fire. The angle didn’t need to showcase the possibility of MJF SETTING ADAM PAGE ON FIRE. Nobody buys that it would actually happen, so it takes the audience out of the story. The worst thing about the tease was that this segment didn’t need it. The fire tease didn’t help at all, because everything was already fine and built well prior to it. AEW has to know when to stop on this type of thing.
-Keep giving Megan Bayne wins. Singles wins, tag wins, squash wins — doesn’t matter. The key is building her up as a force and the match this week did that successfully.
-Why are we doing the Max Caster stuff? Anyone?
Less is more
-The little sit down interview with Mariah May, Toni Storm, and Renee Paquette this week was all the Hollywood Ending match needed. It set a perfect tone going into the match. Storm looked in control and May looked unhinged. Both ready to damage the other. Great stuff.
More heat
-The tag main event was what it was and existed to give Ricochet a pin over Strickland … again. Using the belt got him some more heat and that’s what the match was all about.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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