-Pretty good mixed tag team match to start the show this week. Marina Shafir was in her element. Very much protected, but smartly so. She was able to maintain her edgy attitude and character in this environment, but was not exposed in the ring doing something she isn’t ready to do. Good stuff there. As for Moxley, Swerve, and Willow Nightingale, they carried a lot of the action and the crowd ate it up. The finish gave clear indications as to where AEW might be going with the AEW Dynasty main event between Swerve and Mox, but they erased those with the angle at the end of the show. More on that later.
No, but yes
-Jon Moxley hitting Willow with the Paradigm Shift was a moment and AEW doesn’t do that type of violence very often. Obviously, this can’t be a regular thing for the company. I’d prefer they never do it, but if the choice is yes, go with it, it’s smart to use it to build major main events like Swerve vs. Mox on PPV.
-I feel like Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are going to talk things over prior to their match at Dynasty — not after. Dax and Cash don’t have much of a path outside of the FTR team. As a heel team, they have a potential match with Edge and Christian. All this drama is certainly building toward that inevitability.
-We got both the men’s and women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament brackets revealed this week on the show. The women’s tournament is excellent. It’s filled with former champions, current champions, and only two slots occupied by filler talent that are there only so other big stars don’t have to do jobs. It also has compelling semifinal matches that could see Thunder Rosa face Jaime Hayter and Mercedes Mone face Athena. Any finals combination works nicely out of that. As for the men, it’s less impressive. Mark Briscoe? Brody King? Takeshita? Not exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to world title contenders. How about MJF? Okada? Kenny Omega? Like, a world title opportunity at the biggest show of the year is on the line. Those guys don’t have any interest in that? How does Mark Briscoe qualify, but MJF doesn’t? It’s a major plot hole and the women’s bracket has it too, but it’s not as pronounced.
-Toni Storm obviously defeated Penelope Ford. A fine match, but was the backdrop for a Megan Bayne and Storm stare down. The stare down was fine too, but we needed more from Bayne in terms of showcasing just how much of a threat she is to Storm’s title. Telling? Could be. Tony Khan may not want to over flex with Bayne when he’s going to put Storm over on Sunday at the PPV.
Fresh MJF
-I’m really enjoying the MJF interaction with Hurt Syndicate. It feels fresh and Lashley adding his work into the mix next to MVP further highlighted that point. Not sure where this goes right now, but that’s part of what makes it interesting.
-Big Bill and Bryan Keith as tag team title challengers was out of left field, but AEW didn’t have much of a choice due to Brian Cage getting injured. They were stuck, randomly getting a title shot stinks, but sometimes that happens.
-A nice little tag match with Will Ospreay and Kevin Knight teaming up against ROH jobbers. Not much to it, but it’s smart for Ospreay to pull way back with these kinds of TV bouts. Ospreay vs. Knight at Dynasty in the Owen Hart Cup Tournament should be excellent in the ring, but there’s zero drama around the finish.
-Well, Brody King isn’t winning the Owen Hart Cup Tournament, but why the hell not give him some momentum with a win over Lance Archer? Late, but better late than never.
-The Cope vs. Claudio Castagnoli main event match felt like it lasted every bit of 17 minutes. Yikes. It was fine, but absolutely not memorable and way too long.
Opinion changed
-The real main event segment was the backstage encounter between Swerve Strickland and Adam Page. That confrontation and Swerve getting destroyed by The Death Riders very much changed my opinion on which way the main event will go at Dynasty. It’s really hard to present Swerve as letting his guard down with Page, while then getting beat down by Moxley and Company, only to just lose on PPV. This was AEW setting up the mountain for Strickland to climb. My guess is he will. Could Page help Swerve fend of The Death Riders because of Swerve admitting he was wrong? Page vs. Strickland at All In? All of that is on the table based on what they did.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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