AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (10/5): WrestleDream follow-up including Adam Copeland, Callis Family Values, Jay White-MJF, Rey Fenix, Audio Glitch

By Gregg Kanner, PWTorch contributor


SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

You hear it all the time. It’s all about the follow-up. Well, I thoroughly enjoyed WrestleDream on Sunday. The matches were memorable and the debut of Adam Copeland was one of those moments that had you going back to rewatch a handful of times. But the future is now. By furthering storylines like the Callis Family, MJF and last week’s cliffhanger, as well as Swerve Strickland’s rise, it’s essential that this anniversary edition of Dynamite light a fire for the next few months. Adam Copeland’s mission statement must hit. The follow-ups of those previously mentioned stories must hit. This episode as a whole must hit. Did it? Here we go…


HITS

REY FENIX

I was hoping they would give Fenix a nice run with the International Title. He opened the show with a fun match against Nick Jackson and I love him playing the role of scrappy champ, like Orange Cassidy did, overcoming injuries to beat his opponents. I would like, however, for him to start a feud with someone to avoid it being the same stuff OC was doing for months, but it feels like his reign will be coming to an end in a rematch with Jon Moxley next week. I’d prefer someone cost Mox the match and start an angle so Rey can keep the title, but alas, that does not seem to be in the cards.

FOLLOW-UPS

Nice follow up video packages on Danielson/Sabre and Swerve/Hangman. I’m hoping they don’t steal away Swerve’s momentum by having him lose to Danielson next week, but it looks like that’s what’s going to happen.

JAY WHITE VS. MJF

Once we got past the MJF tomfoolery (grandpa word), Jay White crushed it with his promo setting up a serious confrontation with Max that will culminate at Full Gear. I think it’s time for MJF to chase a title, so I’d love for White to win it, perhaps with Adam Cole’s help, but we’ll see. Again, I’d rather MJF get serious rather than come up with juvenile chants. (Side Hit — Juice Robinson is crushing it as the sidekick support guy)

RENEE’S FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Renee’s face when Hook offered her a chip was priceless. Nice line by Excalibur right after regarding her Canadian love for Ketchup Chips (which are gross!).

CALLIS FAMILY VALUES

I loved everything about this angle except for the unprotected headshot with the chair. That was unnecessary, but the rest of it was stellar. I love Powerhouse Hobbs joining the Family. He’s a perfect fit. The beatdown of Omega was brutal and further cemented Callis’ group as the #1 heel faction in the company.

ADAM COPELAND

Solid show-ending angle with Copeland and Christian that I’m glad they got permission to run over so it wasn’t rushed. Sure, I had to go to YouTube to see all of it plus an exclusive ‘after the show went off the air’ portion, but that’s how things are done these days. I’m sure there will be criticism that DVR’s cut it off, but it’s really easy to hop on over to YouTube and it’s right there. I’m hoping they keep them both away from each other after this initial interaction and perhaps build to something next year.


MISSES

4 YEARS OF AUDIO ISSUES

Come on AEW, it’s been 4 years. How can you STILL have audio issues on your show?? They seem to have problems of some sort at least twice a month. It really is unacceptable. Now I was going to say the only saving grace during the Cole/Strong vignette was the fact that I could hardly hear how dumb it was, but then they went and re-aired it. Oh, the humanity!!

GIVE THE SHOW SOME FLAVOR

So this was the 4th anniversary show. Sure, they said it a ton, but how about having some highlights from the first 4 years shown throughout the show. It would have looked pretty cool to see some of the big moments from Dynamite coming back from a commercial and it would not have taken up much time. Though they had issues with timing… again.

This was another in a long line of solid episodes of Dynamite. There is still something missing as far as making this a must-see show and I’m not quite sure what it is. I’m hoping that the developing storylines build to eventually make it that way. It does seem like they are punting on Rampage and Collision this fall due to all of the competition, which I disagree with. The attendance and viewership will continue to erode if they don’t make those shows seem important. Most fans will DVR those shows if they are watching other sporting events, but they have to make them intriguing enough so the fans don’t just skip it.


RECOMMENDED NEXT: AEW DYNAMITE RESULTS (10/4): Adam Copeland appears on Anniversary Show, Jericho & Omega vs. Guevara & Takeshita, Fenix vs. Nick Jackson for AEW International Title

OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Adam Copeland on when he started speaking with AEW, reuniting with Christian Cage, whether he will end his career in AEW, his final WWE match with Sheamus

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