Alright, so what in the hell was with the angle at the end of this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite? I’m confident nobody can give me a good answer and that isn’t what you’re looking for if your’e AEW.
Here’s what happened …
Swerve Strickland and Adam Page signed the contract for their upcoming match at AEW WrestleDream on Sunday and the broadcast quickly moved backstage to where a group of attackers dressed in black were pummeling Jay White. The group beat him to a pulp and tossed him into a concrete wall before the camera zoomed in on someone standing over White wearing MJF’s devil mask. The person was small and skinny in stature and looked deep into the camera before pushing it away as the show faded to black.
So, interesting on the surface. I get that. But it’s super confusing as well. Why?
Well, earlier in the show Jay White and MJF had a stellar in-ring promo segment that tuned up a White vs. MJF world championship program very effectively with MJF as the clear babyface and White as the clear heel. Regardless of who the mystery attackers turn out to be, White is a sympathetic figure in the story, which renders the excellent and effective segment with MJF completely and utterly useless.
Ok, so that’s the first major issue with the angle. The other is simple. It makes no damn sense given all the players involved — and it doesn’t matter who the attackers are revealed to be.
Does MJF really care??
The nonsensical part of the angle lies at the feet of one key fact — MJF shouldn’t give two “you know what’s” that Jay White is getting attacked backstage. And really, the fans shouldn’t either. Jay White is a smarmy heel. He’s a jerk, he’s conceited, and he’s a bully. Less than an hour before the attack, White spent time on the microphone running down the top good guy in the company in MJF and the Colorado audience. Plus, the MJF character would applaud such a move. Mind you, that even as a babyface he’s still trying to wrestle as little as possible, calling his fans “poors,” and calling himself a scumbag. With all of that at play, he’d all of a sudden care that someone is attempting to impersonate him to take out a potential bad guy challenger? He wouldn’t. And that’s a problem.
If the attacker is revealed to be Adam Cole, big deal. Cole openly helped MJF cheat to retain his AEW World Championship just a couple weeks ago. MJF likely will just high-five Cole, hug him, do a silly kangaroo kick, and then move on with his life and title reign after finding out who the assailants were.
If the attacker is revealed to be Roderick Strong and The Kingdom, big freaking deal. MJF has openly said many times that he believes Strong and The Kingdom are “mid.” This type of attack in the AEW ecosystem would only improve MJF’s perception of that trio.
And if the attacker is revealed to be literally anybody else on the roster, who cares? MJF’s heel persona as a babyface would only appreciate such behavior — especially opposite a true heel like Jay White.
Angle needed a strong babyface involved
Look, for this angle to work, the attack needed to be on one of the most sympathetic babyfaces that AEW has to offer. Think, Orange Cassidy. Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston, Bryan Danielson, Nick Wayne, or someone like Sting would have worked as well. A babyface act getting assaulted is the key because it paints the masked attacker as a vicious bad guy instead of someone just doing what everyone else wants to do and finally beat down a heel.
If it’s Orange Cassidy that is on the opposite end of that beat down, the audience and AEW world backstage could reasonably question MJF’s morals due to the sympathetic nature of Cassidy. MJF could then try to defend himself and it would mean something and show that he’s truly a changed man and wouldn’t have attacked Cassidy like that because of that change.
The story is in MJF feeling betrayed by the perception of others because he was framed for a ruthless attack that he didn’t do. That story only resonates if the audience and AEW narrative care about the person that was attacked in a passionate way. Nobody does in this instance and it leaves the MJF storyline hanging in the balance and confused.