AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (7/15): Omega-Ospreay-Knight, The Painmaker is back, Andrade rising popularity, lack of hype for women’s main event, Copeland & Christian vs. Yuta & Garcia

HITS

COPELAND & CHRISTIAN VS. YUTA & GARCIA

This was a fun opener with a hot crowd in Boston setting the tone for the show. The fans loved Copeland & Christian and were behind pretty much everything they did. The match was a fast-paced combination of mat wrestling and brawling with some crowd-pleasing fun that didn’t overshadow the importance of what was at stake.

Copeland & Christian used their veteran experience to get the win and afterwards, a not-so-subtle shot of The Young Bucks in the crowd foreshadowed an upcoming match that likely will occur at All In. Before that, I expect some sort of multi-man match set up for Redemption involving the Bang Bang Gang and The Dogs considering how the segment ended with all of those teams in the ring.

ANDRADE EL IDOLO

I am truly amazed at how Andrade has become such a big star in his second run in AEW. There wasn’t much to his character the first time he was in the company, but the slow build over these past few months has been very cool to watch. AEW getting behind him has helped of course with the video package and pre-match interview with Renee Paquette backstage before he faced Jack Doyle.

The match was a slugfest and the crowd loved every bit of it. They were behind Andrade so much and the pop when he took off his shirt was one of the biggest of the night. Andrade holding onto MJF’s ring sets up a likely match with him, perhaps at All In or at Grand Slam Mexico, where I expect he’ll be a huge fan favorite.

Well done to both Andrade and AEW for building him into what we see on a weekly basis.

OMEGA / OSPREAY / KNIGHT CHAT

There was a lot to unpack in this segment. First, I was a little concerned when The Young Bucks came out that we’d get the silly version of Kenny Omega as he tends for that personality to come out when he’s around The Elite. However, Omega was serious and it was a solid speech in front of an adoring crowd.

Will Ospreay came out to a great reaction as well and I loved his talk with Omega. He made it clear they’d go at it verbally in the future, but on this night he’d give him his respect and I thought he did a great job setting up why this match at All In means so much to him and it got me wanting to see it as soon as possible.

Then Kevin Knight came out to boos and the Boston crowd really let him have it. Omega didn’t fool around and while I may have chopped a minute or so from his speech, he did a great job giving Knight a chance to change his ways, but we all knew how it would end. I give Knight (or a backstage producer) credit for a great line saying he does not have “good in his heart,” but instead “greatness” before leveling Omega with a cheap shot.

I thought this was an effective segment that gave the audience a taste of what will happen in London later this summer, but also setting up a title match at Redemption for Omega to further build his resume before All In. The Callis Family and Death Riders inclusion at the end helped set up a trios match for next week.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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QUICK HITS

– Give me motivational speaker Jon Moxley every week! There is no more compelling character in the company than Mox and he grabs your attention every time he opens his mouth.

– Bandido is strong. That is all.

– Kyle Fletcher vs. Kommander was fantastic with amazing action and near falls throughout. It is what AEW does best. It was a shock to see Konosuke Takeshita come out as I assumed he’d be headed for Japan and the G1, but the crowd went nuts for him.

– I loved the foreshadowing of tension between Fletcher and Kazuchika Okada as a match between those two would be terrific.

– While I did not hate the video segment last week as much as some, this week’s live interview with the Brawling Birds was much more effective in getting them over as legitimate babyface challengers to the tag titles.

– GREAT job to the fans in Boston. They were as hot of a crowd as I’ve seen in a long time.

QUICK MISSES

– I applaud AEW for making a women’s match the main event, and it was entertaining, but how about some backstage interviews during the preceding two hours to get us excited for it? After a couple of mentions early, the match was largely ignored until the end of the show.

– I’m not sure “The Painmaker” gimmick is going to get many people excited for yet another match between Jericho and Tomasso Ciampa. I was hoping Ciampa’s win last week was going to end the feud, but apparently Jericho’s feuds do not end until he wins.

PODCAST NOTE

Please check out the weekly free podcast I’m part of, “The All Elite Conversation Club” that 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.

Programming Note: We will not be recording a show this week, but will be back next week with more fun. Joel covered AEW’s Brawl in the Ballpark and day one of New Japan’s G1 in a special podcast that has already been released, so check that out!