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Dynamite returns to Texas tonight for a show featuring three big title matches as well as couple of matches that will have an impact on the already strong men’s AEW World Title scene.
Of those title matches the one I’m most interested in is the TNT Title match with El Clon challenging Mark Briscoe. While on the surface it might seem like an obvious win for Briscoe, I actually think it’s a little muddier. There’s a better than even chance that the plan is for El Clon to win and remain undefeated until the undefeated Hologram returns to settle the score with his rival. So, if El Clon wins you heard it here first.
A Plethora of Challengers
Latest Developments
Brody King and Andrade El Idolo officially expressed their desire to challenge MJF for the AEW World Championship joining Samoa Joe, “Hangman” Page, Kenny Omega, and Swerve Strickland as potential opponents.
Analysis
MJF opened last week’s Dynamite cutting a basic but effective promo about being the best wrestler and the best world champion. It had a very 1980s Ric Flair feel about it and it never once felt like MJF was reaching for an edgy line. Brody King came out to confront MJF and plainly said he wanted a shot at the men’s AEW World Title.
MJF, despite clearly being intimidated by Brody, tried to pretend like he wasn’t and pointed out that Brody had only beaten “tomato cans” and needed to beat some legitimate competition first. This was a fun interaction and Brody didn’t look out of place standing opposite the men’s World Champion.
Throughout the rest of the show, we saw MJF in different places watching his prospective challengers matches. First Samoa Joe and Speedball Mike Bailey had very good match hampered only by the overdone interference of Shibata and Hook. Joe won of course. Kenny Omega battled Josh Alexander in another very good match. Kenny in particular looked to be in a great shape, not gassed or straining by the end of the match. After defeating Alexander with a One Winged Angel, Kenny got on the mic and said this is the best he’s felt in years, which showed. For both of the matches MJF was seen watching on a monitor backstage, growing more frustrated as each of his potential opponents won their match.
The night concluded with Swerve Strickland fighting Kevin Knight as MJF looked on from a luxury box. These two had incredible chemistry. Knight was trying to prove himself while Swerve was trying to establish his credibility for a title shot. At one point, Knight hit his spectacular version of Coast-to-Coast followed by the UFO Splash but Swerve was a little too close to the ropes. Knight hit a House Call on Swerve for a two. In the sequence that followed, Swerve hit a House Call on Knight in midair as Knight was attempting a move of his own. He followed that up with a Big Pressure for the win much to MJF’s chagrin.
The throughline of MJF and all his potential challengers over the course of the show was a strong choice. The list of contenders is rife with star power and keeps the men’s AEW World Title scene interesting.
In a way, the matches were a version of the old ranking system without actual numbers that Tony Khan has to be married to. On Collision, Hangman scored a win of Shibata in a physical match and Andrade defeated Magnus from CMLL and then threw his name in the ring and immediately challenged Swerve.
There are a variety of reasons why Andrade shouldn’t challenge for the title, but he should absolutely want to challenge for the title. Beating Swerve would certainly give him credibility. Depending on match order, it could also help set up a clash between him and Kenny Omega to further establish who should be the number one contender.
Grade: B+
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Beginning of a Series?
Latest Developments
Thekla will challenge Kris Statlander for the AEW Women’s World Championship
Analysis
Statlander laid out the challenge and last week Thekla accepted and thus the match was made for this week. On Collison Statlander beat Isla Dawn in a warm-up/eliminator match before Thekla cut a short promo on her from backstage before (hopefully intentionally) botching the Vulcan hand salute from Star Trek.
I expect these two to have a very good match. I also expect there to be some kind of controversial finish or post-match assault to extend this feud into a multi-match series because I can’t see it being blown off in one match.
Grade: B
A Jarring Night
Latest Developments
The Death Riders competed against and defeated the Don Callis Family as babyfaces before reverting back to being heels again.
Analysis
The Trios Street Fight between the Death Riders and the Don Callis Family was a lot of fun. The barbed wire and broken glass board felt like a bit much for a first battle between the factions. That said, the Death Riders were presented as the clear babyfaces. Marina Shafir fearlessly stood up to Lance Archer in the middle of the match, turning a chokeslam into a triangle choke before transitioning into an ankle lock which allowed Mox to hit a cutter. Later Pac and Claudio double-teamed Archer with Pac’s crutch.
All of this felt in line with what was a seeming babyface transition. Then, 45 minutes later, Marina showed up at the end of the match between Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford and The Timeless Love Bombs to prevent Toni Storm from making the save. Afterwards, she walked around the ring flipping the crowd off. I point this out because last week in this column I pointed out how Marina very conspicuously saluted the crowd on Collision. To recap, Marina Shafir was an absolute babyface standing against Lance Archer and then 45 minutes later was an absolute heel attacking one of the top babyfaces in the entire company. In the main event of Collision, Claudio was on overt heel against Roderick Strong.
What’s going on here? The Death Riders story has been a bit all over the place for weeks now. At first it seemed like things were heading towards babyface Mox being turned on by the other heel DR yet it never happened. Instead, Don Callis launched an attack on the DR and it seemed like the entire group was turning babyface. Everyone but Mox were babyfaces for the length of the Trios match and immediately went back to being heels.
Normally, I don’t have an issue with tweeners or shades of gray, but this was just jarring. The Death Riders can be tweeners but if they’re going to feud with the Callis Family they need to lean babyface for the duration of that feud. They can’t be face and heel in the same night because it’s confusing for the fans. There needs to be some serious clarity on the Death Riders.
Grade: C
Random Questions
– Who asked for Billy Gunn? Not me, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, we were subjected to the return of his leathery visage to TV. I won’t come down too hard because the only reason he was back was because he was local to Orlando where Tony had to scramble and put together a Collison taping because of the snowstorm that struck Texas and much of the country over the weekend. Hopefully that’s the last week see of Billy for a while again.
– Was that the best use of Jordan Oliver and Alec Price? Yes, it was two sub 10-minute squash matches used to build up the tonight’s tag title match. Yes, Price & Oliver got some brief shine. The problem, though, was in the lack of reaction to them by the crowd.
Yes, it was a Florida crowd, so that has to be taken into account, but I do that they would get a similar reaction anywhere besides their indy home base of the northeast. To me, Price and Oliver are the prime examples of why a strong ROH could be used to build up indie standouts like these two so that the live Dynamite crowds would be excited to see them when they debut on TV. As it stands, Price and Oliver are already behind the 8-ball and it’s going to take twice as much to turn them into a strong sustainable tag team.
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