AEW Dynamite this week housed some excellent promo work (particularly from MJF, Jay White, Swerve and Christian Cage) and entertaining action, with some good story progression along the way. The show did however also feature its share of filler, as well as an unfortunately extremely poor match between Shida and Soho. It is that match and the completely dead reaction to it that keeps this otherwise hot crowd from getting a perfect score, as unsurprisingly the crowd did not care about it in any capacity. The matches may have been a little hit and miss, but elsewhere the show was strong and I was satisfied overall with the build for Full Gear and the continuation of storylines, despite some occasional missteps and clunky moments. A strong and very watchable Dynamite, but not one without issue.
Tonight on AEW Dynamite, MJF defends the Dynamite Diamond Ring against Juice Robinson. Hikaru Shida is set to defend her AEW World Championship title against Ruby Soho, and Kazuchika Okada makes his way to Dynamite to team with Orange Cassidy against the BCC. Let’s get at it!
Great cold open to the show with MJF hilariously refusing Strong’s attempts to make peace and cutting an incredibly fiery promo on Juice Robinson and Jay White
GREAT MJF vs Juice Robinson
Perfect for what it needed to be, this wasn’t a wrestling clinic but was a very entertaining piece of sports entertainment theatre. The crowd was absolutely electric for it and the back and forth was very entertaining. It did slow to a crawl in picture in picture but that can be excused, it picked back up nicely for a good bit of fun to open the show.
Result: MJF by Pinfall via Heat Seeker
David Sheldon WR Star Rating – 3.75 Stars
AMAZING BCG/MJF/Omega Promo
There is a great deal to unpack in this segment. It was a great segment that pulled together a lot of different storylines and tried to weave them into something. MJF is the focus of so much of the company’s main event booking right now that they are really trying to keep a large number of spinning plates. Whether booking Omega vs MJF for this Saturday is too abrupt for what could’ve been a months long built angle is debatable (I think it is but I understand why it’s being done) but this was a terrific multi-layered segment to build a lot of different story directions for MJF, which I appreciated given how much we’ve been calling for storylines on AEW right now.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Wardlow does a pretaped vignette explaining himself. WHY?? Him being a silent killer the last few weeks was his gimmick, why undermine that now! The explanation didn’t need to be said, we know why Wardlow wants MJF, leave the promos for later
GOOD RVD and Hook vs Dark Order (John Silver and Alex Reynolds)
Fun little match here that was nothing special but was a nice showcase for RVD as usual. Probably a rampage match more than a Dynamite match to be honest but served itself well enough for a small nostalgia boost.
Result: Hook by Submission via Red Rum
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3 Stars
Luther as Toni Storm’s butler really made me crack up. This was much more like it for Toni’s vignettes, actually cinematic, humorous and with a point. More of this please.
I have no idea what in god’s name happened to production after this segment though, everything went to hell in a fast car as everyone had no idea what on earth was going on for a solid 20 seconds as the commentators riffed. Bizarre it must be said.
AMAZING Sting Promo
I didn’t have any desire to see Ric Flair back on my television screen, but I did get a big kick out of watching Christian Cage absolutely decimate everything in his path, and Sting being so happy was wholesome. Sting didn’t need the final rebuttal, but boy was Christian Cage masterful in this segment.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Jericho wants to call on some friends to get revenge on Hobbs. A standard promo from Jericho
GOOD Adam Page and The Young Bucks vs The Hardys and Brother Zayn
The MVP of this match was Isiah Kassidy who really worked hard around some of the Hardy’s limitations. Good match with some innovative spots, but it was pretty clunky work from Matt and Jeff, and there were a lot of miscommunications.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3 Stars
Swerve enters Hangman’s home and cuts a fabulous promo to Hangman’s young child. This was outstanding work.
Copeland and Sting have a face to face backstage. It was a bit clunky in honesty. I’d love to see Copeland be given a bit more to do as he is completely spinning wheels.
BAD Hikaru Shida vs Ruby Soho- AEW Women’s World Championship
What happened here? Two of AEW’s best women’s talents had absolutely zero chemistry and it was really hard to watch. 75% of the moves didn’t hit, the crowd were dead as a doornail and the whole Spray Paint thing made Shida look like an idiot. I was excited for this match, but unfortunately it was extremely poor and I don’t quite know how it was as bad as it ended up being.
Result: Hikaru Shida by Pinfall via Katana
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 1.75 Stars
Samoa Joe will be friends with MJF if it means he can get another title shot. Slightly odd segment but not bad by any means
AMAZING Kazuchika Okada and Orange Cassidy vs Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson- Watch Match Here
This was unsurprisingly a terrific main event. In truth Okada was the least interesting part of it, and he was still very good, just maybe perhaps a little sluggish by his standards. Claudio and Cassidy have killer chemistry while Danielson and Okada brought it well in their sequences. A lot of great combinations here for what was a satisfying and very well done main event.
Result: Claudio Castagnoli by Pinfall via European Uppercut
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4.25 Stars
Overall…
AEW Dynamite this week housed some excellent promo work (particularly from MJF, Jay White, Swerve and Christian Cage) and entertaining action, with some good story progression along the way. The show did however also feature its share of filler, as well as an unfortunately extremely poor match between Shida and Soho. It is that match and the completely dead reaction to it that keeps this otherwise hot crowd from getting a perfect score, as unsurprisingly the crowd did not care about it in any capacity. The matches may have been a little hit and miss, but elsewhere the show was strong and I was satisfied overall with the build for Full Gear and the continuation of storylines, despite some occasional missteps and clunky moments. A strong and very watchable Dynamite, but not one without issue.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling – October 25th 2023
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
