{"id":179536,"date":"2024-06-05T11:59:26","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T16:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=179536"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:37:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T17:37:59","slug":"aew-feud-tracker-assessing-and-grading-elite-hostile-takeover-strickland-ospreay-storm-shirakawa-mercedes-vaquer-jericho-hook-trent-orange-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/06\/05\/aew-feud-tracker-assessing-and-grading-elite-hostile-takeover-strickland-ospreay-storm-shirakawa-mercedes-vaquer-jericho-hook-trent-orange-more\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW FEUD TRACKER: Assessing and grading Elite Hostile Takeover, Strickland-Ospreay, Storm-Shirakawa, Mercedes-Vaquer, Jericho-Hook, Trent-Orange, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1321402751\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>Housekeeping<\/h3>\n<p>\u2022 In addition to Mark Henry last week, Jake Hager and Arn Anderson have also departed AEW following the expiration of their contracts. Here\u2019s wishing Jake and Double A (and his glock) all the best.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cDaddy Magic&#8221; Matt Menard is officially replacing Chris Jericho as color commentator on Rampage. To that, I say, thank goodness. The less Jericho on my TV the better.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Forbidden Door season again. While I genuinely love the idea of an international talent showcase, Forbidden Door has always been a weird time of year. It does seem like with each year the integration of international talent into AEW storylines improves, but there\u2019s no perfect way to insert talent you only have access to for a limited time into ongoing stories.<\/p>\n<p>On the positive side, more promotions, notably CMLL and Stardom, are involved in this year\u2019s show mostly due to the lack of depth on the New Japan roster with so much of their top talent now being AEW guys. CMLL was introduced in the weeks leading up to Revolution, especially Hechicero, who had that standout match with Bryan Danielson on Collision. If you still haven\u2019t watched that match, by the way, go find it. It\u2019s well worth the time.<\/p>\n<p>Stardom has had a presence both at the ROH PPV in April and with Mina Shirakawa&#8217;s story with Toni Storm and Mariah May. The next few weeks are going to be interesting. The PPV&#8217;s main event is maybe the biggest main event of the year thus far, which isn\u2019t something I expected to say going into last week.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight also marks the return to TV of one Maxwell Jacob Friedman. That should bring some eyeballs in. Rush called out MJF last week, but I assume that\u2019s a quick TV match and he&#8217;ll have bigger fish to fry at the PPV. In memory of one of my history professors from years ago who recently passed away after cheating death twice (RIP Dr. Lindemann), I\u2019ll simply close with his favorite expression: Prost!<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Elite Hostile Takeover<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Bucks celebrated their win in Anarchy in the Arena by gifting Kazuchika Okada a beautiful new Lamborghini and attempting to gift Jack Perry with the TNT Title, stripped from Adam Copeland after his leg injury, before being stopped by the returning Christopher Daniels. The Fallen Angel is now the interim EVP, speaking for Tony Khan, and announced a ladder match (as I predicted) to crown a new TNT Champion at Forbidden Door with qualifying matches taking place over the next few weeks. So far, only Konosuke Takeshita has qualified.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2534811198\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Okada\u2019s going to have the nicest car collection in wrestling by the end of the year. Seriously, though, I liked a lot of this. The Bucks stripping Copeland of the title rather than allowing him to relinquish it was a nice touch that made them look like bigger jerks. Attempting to award Jack Perry the TNT Title was exactly what I expected them to do.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher Daniels return solved two problems. It cleared the questions about whether his firing would stick upon Tony Khan\u2019s return and it gave Tony an official spokesperson to go back and forth with the Bucks since Tony can\u2019t promo. (Tony appearing backstage on Collision undercut this, so they need to be better about that).<\/p>\n<p>My biggest issue is that this storyline felt isolated within this segment. I don\u2019t want the Elite overwhelming the show, but if the idea is reshaping AEW in their image, they need to have their hands in one or two other things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In surprise twist, Will Ospreay won the Casino Gauntlet match which also featured Lio Rush and Shota Umino from NJPW and Hechicero and Mistico from CMLL. Swerve came down to the ring to go face-to-face with his new challenger. On Collision, Ospreay successfully defended the International title against Kyle O\u2019Reilly. Roderick Strong revealed that he was supposed to be the next person out before Ospreay won the match and demanded a shot at Swerve after defeating a very game Lio Rush. Strong&#8217;s demand was granted by Tony Khan. Collision closed with a slick Swerve video package addressing both Ospreay and Strong.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1838499958\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Ospreay winning was legitimately a surprise given that normally the challenger at Forbidden Door is an outside talent. The match was a lot of fun. I continue to enjoy the concept, but it should be six months before they pull it out again. No reason to overuse it. His match with KOR on Collision was very good. It was one of those matches where sometimes you just have to stop and appreciate really good pro wrestling by really good professional wrestlers. If you haven\u2019t seen it, it\u2019s worth your time to go watch it.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Swerve\u2019s defense against Strong tonight, the match should be an Eliminator match. I appreciate the connective tissue of Strong being the next entrant if Ospreay hadn\u2019t won, but he should not be getting a world title match.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to Swerve vs Ospreay, it\u2019s impossible to say with 100 percent certainty who\u2019s going to win and I love that. I tend to think it\u2019s unlikely that Ospreay wins. The wildcard at this point is whether and how The Bucks attempt to influence this match given their issues with Swerve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED PWTORCH YOU TUBE VIDEO:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jXA-kuWkRyE&amp;t=300s\">What was Tony Khan thinking giving Ospreay title shot at Forbidden Door?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"12 Minute Hot Take - What was Tony Khan thinking giving Ospreay World Title shot at Forbidden Door?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jXA-kuWkRyE?start=300&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Toni Storm vs. Mina Shirkawa<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Toni challenged Mina to a match at Forbidden Door via video aired during the Stardom show at Korakuen Hall in Japan over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mina has been appearing on AEW TV for weeks now. I wouldn\u2019t say Toni\u2019s jealous of her relationship with Mariah May, but there\u2019s certainly tension. Toni wants to prove that she\u2019s the better mentor for Mariah. The trick here is for Mariah to not explicitly attack Mina. In order for Mariah\u2019s eventual turn on Toni to have impact, she needs to remain a face for right now so that will be something to watch. As an aside, Mariah faces Saraya tonight in what I hope is the finale of this rather pointless subplot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: <\/strong>N\/A<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Mercedes Mon\u00e9 vs. Stephanie Vaquer<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After dispatching of Skye Blue in her first AEW TV match, Mon\u00e9 was challenged by a debuting Vaquer who is both the CMLL and New Japan Strong women\u2019s champions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a brand-new feud so I\u2019m withholding judgment at this point. I\u2019ll just say casting Mercedes as a face is certainly a choice. To be fair, she is a walking contradiction. She promos like a heel but wrestles like a babyface, so it\u2019s difficult to book her. Once we get out of Forbidden Door season, it\u2019ll be interesting to see how she\u2019s slotted.<\/p>\n<p>Also important to note that Mercedes holds a win over Vaquer last year in the New Japan women\u2019s title tournament. Expect that to get brought up. It makes the outcome a little less predictable too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade: <\/strong>N\/A<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Statlander cut a promo on Dynamite explaining that she was sick of being in Willow\u2019s shadow and sick of being everyone\u2019s protector. She followed that up with another promo on Collision mocking Willow and saying her focus was destroying anyone in her path.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not having Willow around at all for the entire week was a big miss in my book. Stat&#8217;s first promos as a heel do show promise, though. She\u2019s much less awkward and her size gives her the credibility to back up her threats. I hope Willow is back this week to respond to her best friend\u2019s betrayal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade:<\/strong> B<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Thunder Rosa vs. Deonna Purrazzo<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No Deonna this week, but Rosa won a quick match over Mexican indie star Reigna Dorada. She then cut a now trademark straight-to-the-camera promo indicating she\u2019s not finished with Deonna.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not much to this one this week. Rosa&#8217;s match with Dorada was too short to really mean anything, although she did hit a wicked Dominator on her. It definitely seemed like this feud was going to continue based on the way Deonna won at Double or Nothing and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if these two meet in the women\u2019s Owen Hart tournament.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade:<\/strong> B<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Chris Jericho vs. Hook<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chris Jericho hosted the first edition of his new talk show segment TV Time. He welcomed Bryan Keith who explained his reasoning for joining The Learning Tree. Hook started to interrupt before Samoa Joe interceded and advised him against it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TV Time was actively bad television. It was awful. Frankly, it\u2019s painful to watch what Jericho has become. He\u2019d like to think he\u2019s Bret Michaels of &#8220;Poison,&#8221; who&#8217;s still touring and sounding like he did 35 years ago. Instead, he\u2019s more like David Coverdale of Whitesnake who can\u2019t hit the high note on the band\u2019s signature song \u201cHere I Go Again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This whole Learning Tree gimmick reeks of desperation. Jericho is desperate to stay on TV instead of just taking a break. Now Bryan Keith has been dragged into this. If this was less cartoonish, Jericho was a serious heel, and he was paying the bounty hunter for his services, that would be one thing. Instead, poor Bryan Keith is being ensnared in this debacle.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most frustrating part of this is that Jericho has attached himself to the FTW Title because he can\u2019t wrestle a real match anymore, so instead of going away he\u2019s going to use the cover FTW rules matches provide. It&#8217;s basically the wrestling equivalent of Milli Vanilli. He\u2019s wrestle-syncing his way through matches which feels like an anathema to the ethos of AEW.<\/p>\n<p>The only remotely good thing that is peeking its head out of this dumpster fire is the Hook\/Joe relationship. Hook can learn a lot from someone like Samoa Joe and it\u2019s a nice subtle callback to when Taz mentored Joe in TNA back in the day. Hopefully they detach themselves from this story (or perhaps detach Jericho from them) quickly and Joe can guide Hook to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade:<\/strong> C+<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Orange Cassidy vs. Trent Baretta<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Latest Developments<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To the surprise of absolutely nobody, OC turned down the contract offer from Don Callis. Trent attacked him from behind, leaving him bloodied before accepting Callis&#8217;s offer himself.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Why is this feud still a thing? Orange Cassidy beat Trent twice. Trent is the heel, so there doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s a reason to have another match just to get him a win. Also, he\u2019s not exactly a huge get for the Family regardless of what bill of goods Callis attempts to sell people the next time he\u2019s getting drowned out on a mic. This feels like a four match feud that OC is bound to win. They\u2019re going to have find a way to make it interesting though because Trent seems more like a sore loser than credible threat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grade:<\/strong> B-<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>RECOMMENDED NEXT: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/06\/03\/aew-collision-hits-misses-6-1-ftrs-passionate-promo-jack-perry-in-the-shower-strong-yells-at-tk-and-tk-likes-it-ospreay-vs-kyle-oreilly-thunder-rosa-more\/\">AEW COLLISION HITS &amp; MISSES (6\/1): FTR\u2019s passionate promo, Jack Perry in the shower, Strong yells at TK and TK likes it, Ospreay vs. Kyle O\u2019Reilly, Thunder Rosa, more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/prowrestling.net\/site\/2024\/06\/04\/christian-cage-on-the-musician-who-told-him-go-f-yourself-after-the-adam-copeland-angle-signing-with-aew-and-which-wrestler-told-him-to-reach-out-to-tony-khan-his-aew-contract-status\/\">Christian Cage on the musician who told him \u201cGo F\u2014 Yourself\u201d after the Adam Copeland angle, signing with AEW and which wrestler told him to reach out to Tony Khan, his AEW contract status<\/a><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\">Check out the latest episode of our AEW-dedicated PWTorch Dailycast, &#8220;AEW Conversation Club.&#8221; &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/all-elite-conversation-club-dehnel-kanner-give-their-take-on-news-of-potential-wbd-renewal-mjf-s-return-and-mercede-s-aew-debut-match--60241973\">CLICK HERE TO LISTEN<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=60241973&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2733946577\"><div id=\"pwtor-3990655515\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Housekeeping \u2022 In addition to Mark Henry last week, Jake Hager and Arn Anderson have also departed AEW following the expiration of their contracts. Here\u2019s wishing Jake and Double A (and his glock) all the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/06\/05\/aew-feud-tracker-assessing-and-grading-elite-hostile-takeover-strickland-ospreay-storm-shirakawa-mercedes-vaquer-jericho-hook-trent-orange-more\/\" title=\"AEW FEUD TRACKER: Assessing and grading Elite Hostile Takeover, Strickland-Ospreay, Storm-Shirakawa, Mercedes-Vaquer, Jericho-Hook, Trent-Orange, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,52,6447,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-feud-tracker","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2021\/12\/Hook_BryantDavid-2021.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179538,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179536\/revisions\/179538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}