-Alright, it’s been three weeks in a row now, but why is AEW starting Dynamite right after the opening act’s music hits? Twice it’s been MJF. It’s a small thing, but the pop for that spot on the show is the biggest of the night. First star out, first babyface out. AEW needs to be getting that full reaction on television every week. Artistically, it looks good, but it also forces the audience’s attention a certain direction, so that they know who is important. Big pops help accomplish that goal.
Stop shilling
-MJF was ok out there this week. Nothing special. The shilling merch needs to end and was bad, but other than that, he laid a foundation for future matches against Daniel Garcia and Will Ospreay — more on them in a second. MJF didn’t really put over his Forbidden Door match, but that was a common thread throughout the entirety of this week’s show.
-So, obviously, the idea to have Will Ospreay offer Daniel Garcia a title shot was so he could upstage MJF. That was the core and concept behind the entire opening segment. That said, both MJF and Ospreay went out of their way to put Garcia over in a big way. Garcia then danced it all away immediately after, but hey, the spotlight was on him for a bit. Calculated effort or necessary evil? Only time will tell.
-A fine little tag match between LIJ and BCC. Tetsuya Naito appeared to drive some interest in his match with Jon Moxley at Forbidden Door. Bryan Danielson had a stare down with his Forbidden Door opponent, Shingo Takagi. Not bad, but both matches could have used more to elevate them from AEW mid-card filler dream match to something more significant.
Who are we rooting for?
-Jay White vs. Rey Fenix was a good Owen Hart Cup Tournament Match, but the face to face between White and Christian Cage was obnoxiously bad. Both heels. Both working for heat. It this type of booking that drives away interest in the product. There is nobody to root for here, so why invest? Fans won’t.
-Hiroshi Tanahashi joining The Acclaimed at Forbidden Door against The New Elite makes sense and is a novelty match that will showcase two huge New Japan stars with history. The Okada and Tanahashi interaction is the hook with this and the setup was good enough.
-Look, I’ve really liked the effort AEW has put into the love triangle angle between Toni Storm, Mariah May, and Mina Shirakawa. It’s the first time that a Forbidden Door match has truly had a real story behind it and it’s the best built match on the show. That said, the glass bottle angle was terrible. The spot looked staged and it came out of left field thanks to Shirakawa not taking enough time to sell being upset that May was dancing with Storm after the three beat Saraya and her team. Too much. Plus, the execution was bad with Storm ducking long before Shirakawa swung to hit her.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?
-Do people care about Minoru Suzuki vs. Chris Jericho at this point? I’d venture to guess not. It won’t be a bad match, but it’s an unnecessary match that will needlessly lengthen Forbidden Door.
-The Hook and Samoa Joe partnership is well done so far. They are in the right place on the card and the Forbidden Door stipulation of the PPV is holding up their feud with The Learning Tree trio. That’s the match and it isn’t happening because of the time of year it is. We’ll see if Tony Khan can keep the duo relevant long enough to get a good payoff to this feud.
-Match of the night honors go to Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kyle O’Reilly. A really good ZSJ style match and O’Reilly delivered as a strong opponent to showcased the ZSJ style. Thumbs up.
-As soon as I saw Gabe Kidd out there this week, I immediately thought about how good a Kidd vs Rush match would be in AEW. I can’t be the only one, right? Who’s interested?
-Hey! AEW didn’t treat the fans like total goofs! Victory! It was so nice to see Swerve Strickland NOT get upset at Will Ospreay for accidentally kicking him in the face during their tag match main event against Gates of Agony. It’s such an overplayed trope that happens to babyface partners — one that makes no sense. Swerve handled it like an adult, carried on, and won the match. Bravo.
Not enough
-The post-match angle between Swerve and Ospreay was a nice callback to the start of their feud. Swerve told Ospreay what would happen if he stole the belt from him again and he did. Swerve dropped him as the show went off the air. A good angle in a vacuum, but not enough of one to drive as much intrigue as possible into a match that is responsible for selling an entire PPV. We needed to hear from Ospreay and Swerve in a babyface style go-home promo. This was fine for a chapter in the story, but not for a final chapter.
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