I try to avoid clichés, but tonight the phrase “mixed bag” came to mind. This is the first episode of AEW Dynamite where when the show was over, I hesitated. There was a good amount of high marks during the show, but dragged out segments and confusing bookings were clear and present.
The show kicks off with a great tag team match between Kenny Omega & Hangman Page defeating Private Party. Once again, there’s the miscue which resulted in a possible issue, but the singles stars managed to keep it together to pick up the win. Private Party, as always, entertaining and Marc Quen… Good lord can this man run, jump, and fly simultaneously. I feel as though Isiah Kassidy needs a bit more work, something seemed off tonight. But overall, great match. Plus, we had the bonus of post-match PAC torturing Michael Nakazawa, demanding another match with Omega.
Seems pretty obvious these weekly teases with the inevitable “oops” miscue will lead to the inevitable heel turn during the inevitable match between Pac and Omega.
Inevitable.
AEW Women’s Championship: Riho vs. Kris Statlander
Man, was I hyped. Built up for weeks, really thought I was in for something special. I am sorry to say, I was disappointed. I feel like I am a horrible person for even saying it. I think Riho is great, and Statlander has the makings of a long-term major wrestler. Tonight, unfortunately was not the best opportunity to display. Brandi Rhodes joined commentary, mostly ripping into Excalibur, and some of those comments were a bit classless. I am worried Brandi is slowly turning into a McMahon-like person. The inevitable presence of the Nightmare Collective pretty much ruined what could have been a decent match. Riho and Statlander did their best, but something was off tonight and it wasn’t all clicking.
I will say, that stalling second rope suplex? Damn.
Once the N.C. was at ringside (and with Luther/Dr. Luther’s debut), the live crowd died, and you could see this match was going to a botchy finish. Riho won after interference, but played the respect card to Statlander. No sir, I don’t like it.
Again, inevitable.
Sammy Guevara defeated Christopher Daniels in a decent match, but once more, interference led to a predictable outcome. Sammy led off until the Fallen Angel brought on the offense. Way too much commentary and pre-match focus on Daniel’s botch from a few weeks ago. Overkill. Pentagon then arrived to talk trash, so Daniels loss to the Spanish God was a lock.
Smarter booking would have shown Daniels able to win to prove a point, but I guess they want to gimmick him down a few notches before going on the redemption run.
Spoiler, later that night, we’ve suddenly forgotten the whole doubting myself bit…
Post match, The Dark Order arrives, in what seems to be a trend of trying pick up those on losing streaks. Guess they follow the wins and losses. Courting the Fallen Angel is fruitless, so the brawl ensues. Kazarian, Scorpio Sky, and the Young Bucks arrive to chase away the heel stable.
As our editor-in-chief Bill Bodkin mentioned to me during the show, they have got to stop putting both heel stables (Nightmare Collective/Dark Order) on the same show, and especially back-to-back. Rotate them, something, but it’s overkill and kills the flow of the show.
I don’t mind Dark Order, but we’ve got to get these gimmicks rolling along before we all lose interest.
Cody & Dustin Rhodes defeated The Lucha Brothers in a damn fine match. Good to see Dustin still kicking and somehow busting out a Destroyer. He still can move and keeping pace with Pentagon and Rey Fenix is no easy feat. It was clear the Luchas did slow down a tad, but it wasn’t hurtful to the match. Cody is on fire, until he ate a disturbingly horrific package driver from Pentagon. I thought concussion or neck stinger for sure. But somehow he came back. Nice touch with Dustin earning the pinfall victory.
I’m not bothered with the Lucha Brothers losing, they’re a great team and can easily rack up a row of wins anytime.
Tony Schivaone attempted to interview Cody about accepting the stipulations from MJF, but Arn Anderson stepped in as advisor and told everyone “next week.” That got a lot of boos. Things just didn’t seem to flow right here, and I’m not convinced having these “advisors” is a good idea. I didn’t mind so much for Tully Blanchard to advise Shawn Spears, but it seems like they’re trying to get all the former Horsemen members into managerial roles.
Here’s where it gets confusing. Right after this match, MJF shows up and demands Cody responds. Waitasec, shouldn’t MJF have interrupted the last segment? Or at least confronted Cody as he was leaving ringside? Would have made for a better build. It doesn’t seem to make sense to bring out the guy Cody was to answer, right after Cody was present. Should have put a segment or another match between the two. Diamond Dallas Page comes out instead, hypes up his yoga, and then teases a return. Butcher and Blade arrive, but are dropped by Diamond Cutters. DDP is then nutcracked by MJF until QT Marshall, Dustin Rhodes, and others make the save.
Not a bad segment, but not great either.
Jurassic Express defeated The Best Friends & Orange Cassidy
Now this was a good ol’ fashioned fun match. This is what I like most about AEW. The trios match was for sure two face teams, although Trent slipped some heel act in, but got to pump up the crowd and put smiles on faces. The eruption when Freshly Squeezed got the hot tag was immeasurable. Of course, we got the same shtick he usually does, but hey, it… was… FUN. Kudos for booking Jungle Boy to get the W.
Marko Stunt, I like the guy, he’s fun, and you know what, he’s a bit of ECW Spike Dudley. BUT… stop those damn Fortnite dances. Just stop. The point is he wants to be taken seriously as a wrestler, so don’t do that. Don’t devolve the character into childish antics. I want Marko to continue to succeed, so please, whoever is advising the character development, please tone down the more childish antics.
Final Segment: Jon Moxley & The Inner Circle… Will he join?
This was an entertaining segment for the first five minutes. Jericho, Sammy G, and Jake Hager in the ring. Moxley enters, and talks about wanting to dominate AEW. In order to do that, his answer is… YES. He wants to join The Inner Circle in order to join the dominant faction and be able to run roughshod over the rest of the roster.
Hooray! Bubbly for everyone!
More bubbly! More praising! More bub… going on a bit too long. Jericho overdoes the celebration, you can feel the lagging… the crowd does start a “You Sold Out” chant, but it seemed to die out quickly with a lack of banter on the mic. Finally, Sammy and Hager leave the ring, but hang out around ringside. Here it comes… Moxley then says to Jericho:
“I lied.” He wants the AEW Championship, and then smashed a bottle of Bubbly over Jericho’s head.
Alright, we got what we expected. I would have preferred to see him join for about a month, and then in some sort of battle royal for a number one contender’s spot, the Inner Circle do their best to clean house, until Moxley eliminates every single one of them to win the spot.
Just my booking.
Tonight indeed was a mixed bag, dare I say, slightly treaded into WWE script and story territory. Not a horrible thing, if it was done well. Maybe this was just an off-week. Next week, I saw the promo for PAC vs. Darby Allin and good lord this better be good.
By the way, the whole Tribute to Memphis Wrestling was bumped to AEW Dark. Oops.
