-Not starting the show this week with Swerve Strickland is a tremendously bad miscalculation. Coming out of AEW Dynasty, Strickland is the most important star on the AEW roster and needed to be featured as such as the new champion — featured in a way that places him at the center of all things AEW. Starting the show with a Young Bucks and Jack Perry backstage arrival pointed fan attention the wrong way and signaled that Swerve’s history making moment was lower level than it should be. Doubling down and not going with Swerve immediately after that arrival in favor of a hack Best Friends feud is even worse. This was a major swing and miss on a show that needed hits.
Do we care?
-So, yeah, about that Best Friends angle — Trent hasn’t done enough to explain why he’s all of a sudden on the outs with the group. The angle simply happened and we’re supposed to just nod along? I guess, but mainly because I don’t have a better answer. AEW needs to take better care when flushing these turns out. That way, they have meaning for the audience.
-Swerve Strickland finally appeared on television nearly 30 minutes into the show and it was only for a 50/50 match with Kyle Fletcher. Yes, yes, yes, the match was good. The thing is, a good match was a low priority for Strickland on this show. We needed to hear Swerve talk about his title win, while being presented as a major star act. We got neither. A positive spin on this would be Tony Khan simply took his eye off the ball due to other circumstances that would play out later in the show. The negative would be that this is how Swerve may get presented as champion, which begs the question, why even make him champion at all?
-The Anna Jay/Shirakawa match was fine enough. Certainly on the high end of Anna Jay matches. The return of Serena Deeb likely means AEW is going to hold on May vs. Toni Storm in favor of Deeb vs. Storm. This is the right call. May and Storm need to continue building history and a relationship together, so when the feud comes, fans care. Deeb is a reasonable stop for Storm to make on that road.
A likable champion
-Willow Nightingale had a great night. During her championship celebration, she cut a promo that felt from the heart, was genuine, and had a layer of babyface fire on top of it. Opposite Mercedes Mone this week, Willow was infinitely more likable. Based on how tonight went, I think you’re looking at a crowd firmly behind Willow Nightingale for her Double or Nothing match against Mone.
-The Casino Gauntlet Match was a cool concept for AEW to trot out this week to crown a new number one contender for the AEW International Championship. The match had fun action and surprise talent reveals, which leveled up the crowd intrigue.
-Look, Will Ospreay should not be challenging for the International Championship on PPV. This is like Steve Austin challenging for the WWE European Championship in 1997. It’s mind numbing. Ospreay is arguably your top star. Saddling him with the fourth most important men’s singles championship is not what you do with top stars. Period. For Ospreay, it needed to be blood feud or world title.
Getting The Learning Tree over
-Mark my words, folks, Chris Jericho is going to get this Learning Tree business over. It’s an unpopular opinion, but Jericho has had good instincts regarding the last month of his AEW run. He pivoted the Hook story into this new heel gimmick that already is getting boos from the audience. He’s got a long road ahead of him, but the pieces are there. Big Bill joining the group is fine. He can serve as a heater for Jericho physically, but also as a prop for the character to play off of.
-Jon Moxley defeated Powerhouse Hobbs to retain his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. No surprise. Hobbs appeared to get injured during the match. Hopefully, he’s ok. Moxley looked good and received a strong crowd reaction. He still feels like he’s working outside of real AEW cannon, though. Yelling “Narita” into the camera doesn’t help.
A major angle, but was it a good one?
-Well, let’s talk about. The big angle at the end of the show featured The Elite attacking Tony Khan with Jack Perry essentially joining the group alongside The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada. This was certainly a major angle for the company. On the surface it was a strong one. The New Elite got some heat and this reinvigorated storytelling is going to hook people to tune in next week. That said, character and presentation inconsistencies were littered all over this thing. Let’s start with Jack Perry. He’s a heel that’s sided with a heel faction and that cost babyface FTR the tag titles over the weekend, but he tries to pop the crowd by talking about how much he loves Jacksonville? C’mon, Perry. Smarten up to your role. That was awful. Also, nobody that only watches AEW Dynamite knows what happened with Perry or why he was suspended and missing to begin with. If this story is going to play out on television, AEW has to go there fully and explain what happened — or make it up. They can’t, however, just ignore it.
-Look, as with most big angles in pro wrestling, the follow-up is most important. Is the next chapter here The Young Bucks taking over as leaders while TK is out, only for returning Kenny Omega to intervene? Something else? We’ll see, but there are two keys to keeping this hot. First, framing the angle as major and huge during Rampage, Collision, and next week’s Dynamite. Second, keeping The New Elite heels. A lot of AEW fans will like the cool factor of this attack. The hope is AEW knows their fans, have thought that part through, and know how they will combat it. If the Bucks, Okada, and Perry are cheered, the entire story fizzles away into nothing.
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media YouTube channel HERE.
Become a Brass Ring Media member HERE.