-A strong tag team match between Will Ospreay & Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong & Trent Beretta. Not only was the match good, but the heat angle at the end was very effective too. The worst thing about this is it looks like Will Ospreay is going to win the AEW International Championship from Strong this weekend. Let’s hope not, but if this angle is any indication, that’s the plan.
Too many championships
-Why is that bad? Look, Ospreay is a once in a lifetime star. The small AEW crowds already make it difficult for him to truly get over as a huge, company changing star. Saddling him with the fourth best singles championship doesn’t help either. Tony Khan needs to have all his top guys pining after the world title — especially someone like Ospreay who is going to be the face of AEW in the six months.
-Do you ban people from buildings by handing out flyers? Is that a thing? The Young Bucks looked like goofs doing that early in the show to keep Darby Allin out, but it did the job of setting the table for the big Allin reveal at the end of the show. Fine stuff, but not great stuff by any means.
-Jay White needs to pick a damn lane. Are you a heel leading a heel faction or are you a babyface that is trying to get the audience to put their guns up? Like, find some consistency, man. Death Triangle vs. Bullet Club Gold is a fine match for Double or Nothing, but a match that could easily exist on Dynamite next week in an effort to keep the PPV shorter.
So bad
-Wow, the Hook vs. Shibata vs. Bryan Keith finish was one of the worst AEW has done in a long time. Hook and Shibata tap Keith out at the same time? C’mon. Worse than the idea alone, commentary sold it as if they’d never seen it before and didn’t know what to do, only for Chris Jericho to smoothly pickup a mic and announce a triple threat with him defending against both Hook and Shibata for the PPV. This was awkward and bad. Why is Shibata involved at all? The story here is Hook vs. Jericho.
-Konosuke Takeshita vs. Jon Moxley had the best build of the night ahead of the PPV on Sunday. Takeshita quickly defeated Matt Sydal and Moxley smashed Takeshita with a microphone to the face. Short. Sweet. Awesome. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be more complicated than this.
-Swerve vs. The Elite is simmering. The best part of the of The Elite vs. AEW story to this point is that Swerve Strickland is on the periphery of it. The small nuggets of interaction that the audience gets between Strickland and The Bucks are planting seeds for an eventual major showdown later this summer. It’s very smart booking to feature the babyface champion opposite the top heel figures in the company in a strong way.
-I like unique! Props to Kyle O’Reilly and Malaki Black for the unique, kick-heavy, match they had this week. This stood out and worked for the most part. Black getting soaked in “blood” by Adam Copeland after the match was good final hype for their match and in-line with the story. Black finally pushed Copeland over the edge and now has a problem ahead of him on PPV. This was very Brood-esque, but good.
Babyfaces Beware
-The “Timeless” Toni Storm gimmick has evaporated any semblance of heat for Serena Deeb. Deeb got some comeuppance on Storm and Mariah May this week only for the audience to boo it. Not exactly a shining babyface go-home segment ahead of a PPV. Storm needs to turn babyface. Officially. The roster is littered with babyfaces that are less hot today because they’ve feuded with her. As for the match on Sunday, it’s DOA because the audience just isn’t behind Deeb like the story calls for.
-Not much of a match between Satnam Singh and Bryan Danielson. Mainly just an attack on part of Singh, his faction, and The Young Bucks. You know Danielson wanted the challenge of bringing Singh along to a good match, so this says something about Singh. That said, the Anarchy in the Arena match needed some heat and this match was the background for that.
A weapon of war
-Ok, Darby Allin. A freaking flamethrower???! Don’t get me wrong, this looked cool. It really did. Are we supposed to believe Allin was going to light The Young Bucks on fire, though? Really? Allin arriving with Tony Khan was a nice way to put a bow on this thing ahead of the show on Sunday. The flamethrower did sell “anarchy” well that’s for sure. That said, this match needed a promo from The Bucks. Like, in the ring, telling the audience why they are on the opposite side of the company they helped build. A lot of this has been very good, but the story doesn’t have the connective tissue it needs because The Bucks haven’t addressed why they’ve done what they’ve done. I’m expecting an excellent match on Sunday, but this would give fans more of vested interest in the outcome.
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