-Man, it was really fun to see Swerve Strickland officially adopt his new babyface role in AEW. He made a brilliant call in integrating the awful things he’s done in the company into this babyface promo and articulating them as a reason why he has no good faith or luck around the world championship now. Really brilliant stuff that painted him as extremely likable.
A fresh Dynamite
-Samoa Joe was Samoa Joe. A bad ass champion, but one that will be booed when it comes time for Swerve to square off with him. The impromptu tag team match between Joe & Swerve against Undisputed Kingdom was WWE in nature and not something we see much at all from Tony Khan, but was a new approach to Dynamite that made the show feel fresh. Good timing on that front as the new staging, logo, and color theme for Dynamite rolled out this week too. It looked good, hip, and added to a fresh Dynamite feel that was in the air all throughout the show.
-Swerve and Joe defeating Undisputed Kingdom as easily as they did certainly kept Undisputed Kingdom in their same awful place on the card. Matt Taven and Mike Bennett were sacrificed here for the benefit of Swerve to look really good with Joe as his partner and it was the right move. Undisputed Kingdom are pawns in AEW right now, so using them to further bigger storylines like the one with Swerve makes total sense even if it stings on the surface due to Bennet and Taven being ROH Tag Team Champions.
-Sooooooo, Chris Jericho is going to hog the Hook spotlight now? Looks like it.
The best Hook match ever?
-Hook vs. Brian Cage was one of the better Hook matches we’ve ever seen. Maybe second best and only behind the match he had with Samoa Joe. Hook took a beating, but showed off in the finish by maintaining his Red Rum submission while laying in a pool of thumbtacks.
-Not a surprise to see that the vacant AEW World Tag Team Championships will be up for grabs in an upcoming tournament. AEW loves it’s tourneys, so this makes sense. Based on how the tournament was hyped this week, we look to be getting all of the top AEW tag teams in the tournament and vying for the championship. This is important and not something we’ve seen in AEW’s history when it comes to the tournaments that they’ve done. Thumbs up.
-Christian Cage vs. Adam Copeland with an “I Quit” Match in Toronto in a couple weeks? Count me in. The match should be very good and should finally put an end to this feud. I still disagree with saddling Copeland with a mid-card title like the TNT Championship, but so be it. It was inevitable as soon as Cage beat Daniel Garcia to retain the title at Revolution over the weekend.
-Kyle O’Reilly is back and he cut a solid promo this week. Not much to it, but he explained where he was, why he’s back, and how he’s going to approach being back. Simple, but thumbs way up because of it.
Okada and the The New Elite
-Ahhhhhh, The Young Bucks. They were goofs this week in their new EVP gimmick, but helped advance what could be one of the biggest stories of the year at the same time. First, the negative. The Bucks suspending Adam Page is the wrong psychology to put around Page’s absence. The guy just turned heel on Sunday night and now you have super heel authority figures in Matt and Nick Jackson announcing that they’ve suspended him? There is sympathy in that story and the crowd reacted that way toward Page when they heard what happened. A miss.
-Now, The Bucks bringing Kazuchika Okada into the fold and making a new Elite with him is smart. Unexpected, but smart nonetheless. Okada is a huge star and this drops him right into the top of the card instantly. Aligning with The Young Bucks also gives him something to be a part of weekly on television — an environment he isn’t used to. Lastly, The Young Bucks can serve as his mouthpiece and are worthy of that position. Wins all around, not to mention, Okada now has singles matches lined up against Kenny Omega and Adam Page at some point down the road.
-The key to the Okada heel stuff working is firmly in the hands of The Young Bucks. If they decide to drop the goofiness and commit to being real bad guys in AEW, Okada is going to come across as a strong heavy for them and a main event heel in his own right. If they are goofy, that goofiness will rub off on Okada and he’ll have a mountain to climb to redefine himself as a serious player down the road.
An unexpected surprise
-Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see Riho and Kris Statlander have a top match on the show. They did, though. Riho was wonderful and Statlander played her part. The story with Stokely Hathaway isn’t clicking. They won’t pull the plug, but it’s low-card material for life at this point.
-Toni Storm got some promo time backstage and it went exactly as you’d expect Toni Storm promo time backstage to go. My toddler loved it.
-My favorite part of the show this week was the Darby Allin promo in the ring. Wow. Darby was fantastic in not only talking about losing Sting as a partner and what was next for him in the form of a match with Jay White next week, but he was emotional talking about his place in AEW, freaking climbing Mount Everest, and possibly dying in the process. This not only helped Darby connect even further with the audience as a character, but it helped build anticipation for his match against White. White essentially mocking Darby for showing his emotion was heel in nature and got the heat it desired. Yes, he was a bit disconnected from his recent schtick with the Bang Bang Scissor Gang, but this was infinitely better than any of that and should be the type of tone White strikes on a regular basis.
-This Darby Allin promo is the type of promo that AEW needs more of. They won’t all be as good as Darby was here, but it’s the attempt that matters. The attempt to put stakes behind a match and not simply just trot it out onto television. It’s important and if this promo is the start of a new direction as far as promotion strategy goes, it’s a smart direction and about damn time.
The spectacular Will Ospreay
-Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher was spectacular. Just a wonderful, crisp, AEW style main event that the audience ate up. Look, Fletcher isn’t a top pushed act, so Ospreay having to take 20 minutes to beat him is questionable. It makes perfect sense though if you’re in the business of promoting Will Ospreay. Having good matches and the types of good matches that he has is why people will tune in to see him. Tony Khan has to emphasize that point, because it’s his hook. Smart.
-Tony Khan has to be in the promoting business when it comes to Will Ospreay. Tony Khan is to Will Ospreay like Vince McMahon was to Hulk Hogan. Ospreay needs to be the face of his company, but needs infinite promotion to get there. Start now, TK.
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