-So, not a great audience reaction for Daniel Garcia to start the show this week. Fans see this feud with MJF for what it is — a stepping stone match for MJF more than it is an elevation of Garcia. Now, the program can still be impactful for Garcia, in that he’s been more serious and dropped some of the annoyances that plagued his character for the last year. Long term, that will help him. In the moment, though, this is a feud MJF is going to win and then move on from.
How much do you love AEW?
-It was surprising to see MJF and Garcia go back and forth so long on the microphone. That hasn’t been Garcia’s sweet spot and he came across unsure of himself as he tried to trade verbal barbs with one of the best talkers in the game. I question putting him in that position to begin with. The content was ok, but does every AEW promo have to land at the feet of “I love AEW more than you do?”
-No surprise seeing Kazuchika Okada and Kyle Fletcher have a really good match together. That said, it’s painfully obvious that Okada is misaligned as a heel. The finish of Okada cheating with a low kick to win the match got no heat on him at all. He’s a babyface and it’s time AEW starts to treat him like one. The audience plays along from time to time, but they love the guy. Not sure why you push against that at this point.
-Raise your hand — who is kinda done with the Mark Briscoe crazy promos? Anyone?
-AEW put the ‘ol squash match to good use this week with Jaime Hayter. It’s smart to keep her top of mind and on television. Without a clear PPV opponent, squash matches can be an effective way to present a star to your audience without a lot of consequence. Once again, Hayter looked great and doesn’t appear to have much ring rust on her at all.
Moxley doesn’t just want to talk
-Something tells me that Jon Moxley doesn’t “just want to talk” with Darby Allin. That doesn’t sound like Mox at all. The promo was good this week, but it was surprising to see Mox not allude to any AEW ownership changes like he did last week. This type of neglect on a key storyline hook is where AEW has lost threads on big angles in the past. It’s one week, so there is plenty of time to recover, but it’s not a great sign if you’re AEW and want to build some trust within your fan base around what is likely to be an important storyline in the company this fall.
-It’s just hysterical that after three years, Chris Jericho finally wants money for his messed up jacket, courtesy of Orange Cassidy. It’s such a reach from a storyline perspective, but Jericho and Cassidy both played it off pretty well on television. I’ll tell you what, that Jericho vs. Cassidy Orange Juice match seems like an eternity ago. AEW is such a different company right now than it was then.
Guess who’s back?
-Mariah May vs. Nyla Rose was exactly what you’d thought it would be. May wins and that’s that. May continues to impress with her presence and aura on the show. She’s a star and just needs something better lined up for her at this point than Rose.
-There was nothing at all special about Mercedes Mone’s in-ring promo this week, but it was smart to give her match with Hikaru Shida at All Out some kind of boost with a special stipulation. Kamille not being allowed at ringside isn’t huge, but it will change the tone and tenor of the match — a necessity given that Mercedes just beat Shida a couple weeks ago thanks to the help of Kamille. This worked.
-Boy, they did the bare minimum to build up Bryan Danielson vs. Jack Perry this week. The Perry promo time was smart and he cut a good one about the match, but there wasn’t any effort made to really make you believe Perry was credible enough to win. With the Swerve Strickland vs. Adam Page cage match slotted as the main event and key draw of the show, this title match didn’t have to be the second coming of Rock/Austin, but you should want your world title matches to have more juice behind them than this does now.
-The trios match between BCC and Team Ospreay was action packed as you’d expect. A fun match and a fun watch, but nothing that you’ll remember next week.
Adam the arsonist
-Ok look, I understand that Adam Page “the arsonist” is going to generate quite a few eye rolls out there. It did with me at first. We needed to see this dark, demented Page, though. It was essential to getting this feud to an even more personal level ahead of the cage match at All Out. Page vs. Swerve has depth and history, but for them to head into another match, it needed something twisted and Page setting Swerve’s house on fire was exactly that. Page has walked around like a crazed heel since returning, but hasn’t made the audience feel that new character. He needed a moment like this one to really show who he has turned into. Not only did this deliver on all that, it was shot tremendously well and left a lasting image that will likely be a part of AEW Dynamite vignettes for years to come. If you didn’t like it, I understand why, but this feud is hotter (pun intended) coming out of that angle than it was going in. Mission accomplished.
What did you think of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite. Let us know in the comments!
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I'm amazed at how much of this I completely disagree with.
The idea that MJF is one of the best talkers in the business while Mark Briscoe is "tired" is egregious.