-A pretty good promo segment between Adam Page and MJF to start the show this week. Both guys got the reactions they were looking to get and it made for not only compelling television, but a compelling story between the two top homegrown AEW talents. Page was really good in turning MJF’s goading back on MJF and MJF showed ass when needed to put over the angle as a whole. This is a strong first title defense for Page and a welcome one given previous booking patterns for new champions throughout the years.
Don’t forget about Will
-Jon Moxley vs. Kevin Knight was a good match, but one without any drama. It existed to get to the beatdown angle with Darby Allin and the subsequent return of Will Ospreay. That all worked nicely. Because Page got the big victory at All In over Moxley, Ospreay’s issues with The Death Riders have faded to the background a bit. There still is a lot there and the announced Light’s Out Cage Match between Team Moxley and Team Ospreay is a fine way to mine something more out of The Death Riders.
-The bigger angle at play with Jon Moxley is Darby Allin. I very much like the slow build to what will be a super violent match between those two. AEW is smart to hold this off until All Out, so they can let the rivalry breathe as much as possible.
-Well, the women’s six-woman tag team match was better than fine this week, but also sharply displayed the lack of top of the roster depth the AEW women’s division has at the moment. It’s Toni Storm, Mercedes Mone, and Athena at the top and then a large drop. You can feel that drop because the Storm and Athena dynamic is on a different level than Mone and Alex Windsor. Those are the top women’s feuds in the company right now and the latter feels like a dramatic downshift in importance — especially for Mone.
Let the nostalgia breathe
-Yeah, I’m now firmly on the side of disliking the Adam Copeland and Christian Cage reunion. First of all, they sped up the story and skipped at least three chapters the minute they jumped to the hug this week between Cope and Cage. So, the story progressed at a final season of Game of Thrones pace and we all know how that ended up. Second, when the hug and reunion happened, Cage didn’t look all that excited about it. So it’s like, has he found himself or not? The bottom line is, there wasn’t a lot of momentum or fan interest in seeing a Cage and Cope reunion in the first place. If you make the choice to go there, it needs to be sold as a massive deal and then the Cage and Cope team need to be put on a run that makes people excited and allows for fans to wrap themselves in nostalgia. Right now, this story is missing at almost every turn.
-Hiromu Takahashi vs. Kyle Fletcher for the TNT Championship is the best Forbidden Door style match match on the card at this point. That’s a really good showcase match and could steal the show at the end of August.
Simple works
-Kazuchika Okada and Swerve Strickland provided a simple, but compelling chapter to their story ahead of the PPV. Neither guy said very much, but they were able to generate a fun layer of tension that resonated with the audience.
-The Opps against LFI? In the main event? Couldn’t be. The match itself was fine, but it felt like an old Rampage main event rather than something worthy of closing the “A” show. Strong action, though, and it was good to see Samoa Joe back in the fold.
Just a little heat
-It was only a matter of time before you got the big heat angle between Adam Page and MJF. It came this week in the form of a vicious backstage assault on Page by MJF. Like Okada and Strickland, the angle was simple and straightforward, but very well acted and sold by both MJF and Page. The added violence here was needed to continue giving the PPV match high stakes.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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