-Jon Moxley is tremendous. The way he was able to saunter out to the ring and in an instant change his vibe live in front of an audience was truly spectacular. Now, I’m intrigued with what they started last night. Why does Moxley want to talk with Darby? If AEW isn’t Tony Khan’s company, who’s is it? Both key questions that should be fun to follow-up on. A refresh on Moxley was needed and this appears to kicking that off.
Bad track record
-THAT SAID. AEW doesn’t have a good tracker with stories and angles like this. Throughout AEW’s history, they’ve started strong with intrigue, interest, and discussion on stories, only for those stories to totally fizzle by the time they payoff. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt here, so if your antenna is up, that’s totally reasonable.
-Adam Page vs. Ishii was good. A typical AEW match. The post-match confrontation with Page and Swerve was where the money was at. In addressing Page, Swerve smartly wove together losing the AEW World Championship at All In. He placed some blame at the feet of Page, but not all of it. That was the right tone to strike. A cage match between the two makes perfect sense.
-I’d like to see Page step up his game in this heel role. He’s not making me feel anything. I know he’s trying to act like a deranged maniac, but that personality doesn’t fully come through on television. We need a big heat angle next week to make sure the audience is on the side of Swerve.
Good for Swerve
-As for Swerve, this is a good feud and match for him to go to after losing his world championship. If Page can truly find his heel character, Swerve will smoothly slide right into a pure babyface slot again after straddling that line with Danielson.
-Jaime Hayter looks great out there. She doesn’t look like she’s missed a beat since her injury and a feud with either Mariah May or Mercedes Mone should be on deck soon.
-Did you guys hear that??? People in the audience were saying “Hiiiiiiiiii” back to Chris Jericho as he cut his promo backstage with The Learning Tree. Hopefully, Jericho is angry with this and pivots away from it. Turning again because of a strange “Rusev Day” like gimmick, would be a waste.
Make no mistake, this isn’t about Daniel Garcia
-Sorry, but I’m not buying Daniel Garcia in this role opposite MJF. He’s so far below him and the result is this match at All Out feeling more like an inevitable squash than anything else. Garcia was fine and showed fire this week. This feud can be good for him to start finding a serious persona again as well. Make no mistake, though, this is about MJF getting back on winning track in the end.
-Hook vs. Roderick Strong is a very good feud for Hook at this juncture in his career. He can learn a lot and hopefully show more in the ring than he ever has before. Strong is a great dance partner for him.
-Soooooooooo, was that Mercedes Mone party vignette supposed to air? Like, seriously. That thing made no sense. First, it was the worst produced party in televised wrestling history. There were like 4 people there. C’mon! If you decide to do something like this, do it. All the way. Get a crowd. The interaction between Mone and Private Party was awkward. Okada’s involvement was ludicrous and didn’t even deliver on the comedy he was there for.
You only get one shot
-Mariah May’s time on the show this week was equally as weird. I’d guess that her segment got cut for time. If that’s the case, it’s better to just cut her all together. Instead, she had time, but didn’t speak on anything of relevance. You only get one moment to make a first impression as champion and this was hers and was a miss.
-Wow, that Ricochet in-ring singles debut was disappointing. Why? He didn’t stand out. Like, at all. Kyle Fletcher, who isn’t known as a high flyer, looked a lot like Ricochet did. We didn’t get to see any Ricochet style action and he very much blended into the match. He appeared to be blown up too. Tony Khan needed the “promote a wrestler” playbook here. The idea on night one was not for Ricochet to have a good match — at least is shouldn’t have been. The idea needed to be showcasing your new star and that didn’t happen.
-Glad to see Bryan Danielson definitively let people know how is championship run would go. This was important coming out of All In. Now, audiences are on this final ride with him. Thumbs up.
Jack Perry
-As for Jack Perry as the All Out challenger to Danielson, I’m fine with it on short notice. The Chicago crowd will be all over Perry and this is an easy match to do on short notice. Now, the execution of getting to that match was atrocious. How did Perry know to make a video to answer an open challenge that hadn’t been given yet? It’s this kind of miss that makes audiences disconnect with major angles and acts.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. Let us know in the comments!
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