AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (8/20) Danielson on commentary, Copeland and Christian’s uneasy alliance, Ospreay speaking from the heart, MJF gets back what was taken from him

AEW is in the UK! I always look forward to international events because of one thing, the crowds. I love the international fans so I came into the night very pumped up for this episode of Dynamite as they began Forbidden Door week. Here’s how they did.

HITS

DANIELSON OPENS THE SHOW

Now that’s a shocker right off the bat for me as I was not on social media when AEW announced Bryan Daneilson was going to be a special guest commentator. It was a perfect way to start the show as it got the fans fired up immediately. Danielson also is very good on commentary. He understands his role to put over the wrestlers and dictate the narrative.

OSPREAY AND MOX

Inject the Will Ospreay entrance into my veins! What I love about pro wrestling can be explained in one word: Emotion. It’s the emotion from the crowd and you clearly saw the emotion on Ospreay’s face when they were chanting and singing for him. Ospreay’s story about late night drinking and looking for food was perfect. I have no clue what a sausage roll is, but I’m intrigued now, especially after the fans started chanting “sausage rolls” over and over. Classic. Again, the reason I LOVE UK crowds!

Also, it’s so cool when you can tell the wrestlers are having a blast. Ospreay taking a shot at vegans and Danielson immediately getting “offended” was good stuff.

Ospreay continues to be a very good promo. Sometimes, he can get sidetracked or it can come across as confusing, but he speaks from the heart and conveys that emotion. (There is that word again). He was clear explaining he needs surgery, but before that he’ll give it all he has on Sunday. It’s a perfect message to get people to buy the PPV knowing this may be the last time we see him for a while.

Moxley didn’t need to say a word to help promote this matchup.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: CLICK HERE (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)

COPE(LAND) & CHRISTIAN

I’ve written for weeks about how this reunion story has been on fast-forward. Outside of officially announcing the match on a graphic last week, I think they did about as good a job as possible getting to this point. The story has made sense with Copeland trying to get his friend to see the light, but Christian just can’t change his ways in a couple of weeks after spending the past three years as a complete A-hole. Now, in this in-ring promo, he embraced being the A-hole making it clear he is not changing his ways and that he and Copeland are not on the same page, BUT they are writing in the same book.

If this was going to make sense, it had to be done this way as Christian says that Copeland is helping him with his Nick & Kip problem and in turn, Christian helps Copeland with his FTR problem. This may end up the “happy bubbly reunion” in the end, but for now it would have made no sense for Christian to embrace the good side this quickly.

With Nick Wayne injured, Lucha-Killswitch seemed like as fine a replacement as any. It was good to see him back as he battled quite a serious illness last year. This is not a perfect situation, but the focus of the match is clearly the Cope-Christian relationship and Kip was likely taking the pin anyway!

QUICK HITS

– Great moment when Ospreay returned to carry Marina out of the ringside area after she was ejected from the 6-man match. That match was fun and the crowd was excited not only to see Tanahashi perform, but to see him pin Wheeler Yuta. The predictable post-match cluster was well done as I’d say they did a solid job building to the lights-out cage match on Sunday.

– The tag title contender tournament final was a great match where I would speculate the popularity of Bandido and Brody King changed the original plan and now a draw gives us a three-way with the Hurt Syndicate on Sunday. I was happy to see there was no cliche finish to the draw where one team had the opponent beat and got a two-count before the bell rang. I’m curious to see what happens now as I can see the Syndicate losing the titles by not being pinned on Sunday or they can just beat one of the other teams to retain.

– Fan participation I never thought I’d hear? Crowd “singing” along to MJF’s theme song. Well done, Glasgow!

– I really enjoyed the banter during the women’s tag match main event. Toni and Alex have good chemistry, but I also think Mercedes and Athena worked well together showing off their egos. I am a big believer in these four being at the top of the division as we head into the fall. Athena is a star.

MISSES

MJF OUTSMARTS HANGMAN

I really wish they left this alone from last week. They had it perfectly set up where the world champion showed smarts and learned from his past to trick the heel into using his contract and setting up a gimmick-free title match for Forbidden Door. In the span of 10 minutes, Hangman is back to being a hothead and now we’ll have an over-produced match with interference and shenanigans and a likely “cash in” for a second chance.

It hurts this match because I will find myself sitting through the first 15-20 minutes of it just waiting for all the interference. Sometimes less is more and they should have kept it the way it was.

This was a solid go-home show in front of a hot crowd and I’m very much looking forward to Sunday’s PPV in London.

PODCAST: Don’t forget to check out the weekly free podcast I’m part of, “The All Elite Conversation Club” that typically drops on Fridays the PWTorch Dailycast lineup. Joel Dehnel and I have a great time breaking down all things AEW. Search “pwtorch” on your podcast app to subscribe. Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com.