-Good match to start the show this week between Mercedes Mone and Hikaru Shida. They worked pretty well together as expected and Mercedes winning was certainly not a surprise. The post-match stuff was confusing. Are we not supposed to care who was under the Sting mask ringside? Whoever it was got totally smoked by Kamille. We probably should care? That aside, the Britt Baker vs. Mercedes Mone match needs to happen yesterday. There just isn’t much left for it until it gets in the ring and based on the audience’s response to Baker during the show, fans can feel that.
The cowboy is cooking
-Adam Page vs. Jay Lethal was a hard-hitting affair. Not too much drama in this one, because you knew Page was winning, but the stiff nature of the match made it more exciting than it otherwise should have been. Page is cooking with the new gimmick, though he’s still undefined as a heel or babyface at this point — especially with Swerve Strickland walking that undefined line as well. More on that in a bit.
-Man, AEW was on their “A” game for video packages this week. The Will Ospreay vs. MJF piece was great and did a nice job of encapsulating their story. Bryan Danielson’s career retrospective piece was tremendous. The Green Day “Time of Your Life” song behind all of that historical ROH footage really played well and helped drive home the significance of the stakes on the line during Danielson vs. Strickland at All In. Both of these helped the matches they were for and hey, that’s the entire damn point. Thumbs up.
-I’d have pumped the brakes on Pac going after the AEW International Championship. His involvement and hovering around the title signals an Ospreay win at All In. MJF vs. Ospreay 2 is a huge match and there is no need to foreshadow what may happen in it for someone the caliber of Pac.
You got it all wrong, Darby
-No, Darby. Just no. Look, Darby cut an intense promo and delivered the lines well, but he missed the boat entirely with the content. No, Darby. You weren’t out there getting beat up for nothing. You were out there getting beat up to win matches. The clip in which AEW stars are missing this pivotal narrative during promos is stunning. Wrestlers winning matches is the essence of why everything happens. It cannot be forgotten as much as it is in AEW and the Darby promo this week is a classic example of what that miss looks like.
-A Coffin Match for Jack Perry vs. Darby Allin at All In? Fine, I guess.
-It was a quiet week for the Mariah May/Toni Storm program, but the small vignette they did for May was a strong chapter given the circumstances. The piece reinforced the roles and the story and that was good enough.
-Orange Cassidy vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong for a chance to enter number one in the Casino Battle Royal at All In was the match of the night by a wide margin. Really good action. Cassidy winning made all the sense in the world too.
Best ever
-ATTENTION! Last night was Claudio Castagnoli’s best promo ever. Ever. He was tremendous. He brought intensity with story, but also combated the Okada “bitch” line really well with how he closed things up. This is the ceiling for Claudio and he’s surely going to lose to Okada at All In, but it was fun seeing him hit this home run.
-Well, Chris Jericho has pretty much swallowed Hook up. He didn’t much momentum going into the feud with Jericho, but now the audience seems fine to just sit on their hands Hook.. That’s not a good sign for him and it isn’t a good sign for Jericho and what working with him can do for young talent.
-If you ask me, The Young Bucks have lost all mojo at this point. They are running on fumes as characters and don’t stand out right now as wrestlers because so many guys on the roster can do what they do in the ring. Bucks vs. Acclaimed didn’t click early, but then wrapped abruptly due to interference. All the shenanigans with The Bucks, FTR, and Acclaimed signals a triple threat is on the horizon for All In. Yay?
It was a heel turn
-Swerve Strickland was a good main event without drama, but the real story was the post-match. Look, Strickland turned heel. You don’t threaten to maim somebody in front of their own children and try to be a good guy. My fear is that’s what will happen with Swerve and it won’t work. Either way, if the angle this week wakes Danielson up and we start to see the intense “best in the world” competitor in him, the feud and match will present significantly better on PPV.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
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