This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite was below average. Starting with the match quality, which was very much up and down throughout the episode. You had some great matches in Shelton Benjamin vs Mark Briscoe, and the main event in Darby Allin vs Brody King. But then you had other matches which looked great on paper, but sadly didn’t live up to expectations. The storytelling was extremely weak, Kamille turned on Mercedes in probably the worst way AEW could’ve executed that moment. The Adam Cole and MJF feud continued to scratch heads, but even the main event storyline with the Death Riders wasn’t anything to shout about this week. The main selling point of Dynamite this week, was the start of the Continental Classic and while it was a decent start to the tournament, AEW probably would’ve been better off swapping the matches they announced on Collision with the ones they booked on this show. That would’ve felt like a far better way to kick things off for such an exciting tournament. I expected a lot more from Dynamite this week, but much like the match quality, the show was very much up and down and didn’t really lock in to that next gear it needed to for me to give it a higher rating.
This week on AEW Dynamite, the AEW Continental Classic officially gets underway. Three matches will take place which are Darby Allin vs Brody King, Mark Briscoe vs Shelton Benjamin and Ricochet vs Claudio Castagnoli. Chris Jericho defends his ROH World Championship. Jamie Hayter takes on Queen Aminata. Let’s get into the review!
GOOD Hurt Syndicate Opens The Show
Fairly decent promo to kick off Dynamite. The Hurt Syndicate came out to the ring to basically gloat about Bobby Lashley’s win at Full Gear, as MVP finished things off by emphasising that “we hurt people.” I’m still not a fan of that catchphrase, it feels a bit lazy. There was very little character development in this segment, but MVP did a great job of hyping up Lashley and Shelton Benjamin as per usual.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
GREAT Mark Briscoe vs Shelton Benjamin – Continental Classic
Shelton Benjamin has been presented as a big deal in AEW so far, he feels as important as Bobby Lashley and that is how it should be. The man is just an incredible athlete and while that was on display at times in this match, it was his dominance over Mark Brisoce that was the story in this one. Mark got some good offense in early on, but Benjamin was in the driver’s seat for the majority of this contest. The match did a good job of getting over Mark’s resilience though, while I’m guessing he will be taking most of the pinfalls in this tournament, he didn’t come away from this particular loss looking bad at all.
Result: Shelton Benjamin by Pinfall via Powerslam
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.50 Stars
BELOW AVERAGE Mercedes Mone TBS Championship Celebration
I’m not going to sugar coat it, this segment was not good at all. The talking point coming out of this was Kamille cutting ties with Mercedes, but the way we got to that point was awkward and strange. Mone said she showed everyone at Full Gear how a real woman gets the job done, then just incredibly casually with no build up, she was about to fire her bodyguard. Kamille stopped her and said you can’t fire me because I quit, then she just walked off, no physicality to make her look dominant or anything, she just went backstage. Then Mercedes started screaming for a bit and the segment was over, probably the worst possible way this Kamille face turn could’ve been executed.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.25 Stars
GOOD Chris Jericho vs Tomohiro Ishii – ROH World Championship
This was a fairly fun match at times. At one point these guys were just slapping each other for 4 minutes, which has certainly never been done before on American TV. The crowd struggled to get into it at points, but it certainly made for a good contest in the end.
Result: Chris Jericho by Pinfall via Judas Effect
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.00 Stars
The episode picked up again as Swerve Strickland was being interviewed by Renee, massively putting over Bobby Lashley while in the process answering what is next for him and Nana.
GOOD Hangman Adam Page Promo
This storyline has felt very messy since the ending at Full Gear. I like the fact that AEW’s top stars are now going after the Death Riders, but parts of this promo felt confusing to me and didn’t really add up. Hangman said that he would be standing here as AEW World Champion, if Christian held up his end of the bargain. Jay White said if anyone deserves a shot at Moxley then it is him. Then the Death Riders took both guys out. It seems like the goal here is for Hangman and Switchblade to team up to try and take down Mox and co, but we aren’t getting to that destination smoothly and rather stumbling towards it.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
GOOD Ricochet vs Claudio Castagnoli – Continental Classic
The start of this match had some messy and clunky moments in it, and although there were some bright sparks at points, they weren’t really able to get into that next gear. Then the finish was pretty much the exact same as the one in the Darby and Claudio match. Ricochet beat the 10 count only to be hit by a clothesline from Claudio, which felt slightly anticlimactic compared to the Darby match. I know for a fact these two are capable of better, it didn’t help that the Chicago crowd seemed to just be interested in the fact both guys are bald.
Result: Claudio Castagnoli by Pinfall via Clothesline
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.00 Stars
Good backstage interview up next, involving Don Callis and Kyle Fletcher. Both of them bragged about Kyle’s win over Ospreay and insist that Will is now behind them, as Kyle gears up to take part in the Continental Classic.
AVERAGE Adam Cole Promo
This storyline just continues to get messier each week. This should’ve just been about MJF and Adam Cole, now Kyle is involved as well as Roddy. Cole was speaking like he was ready to end MJF’s career, when in reality he just broke Strong’s hand and Max could’ve done a lot worse. Also why is Kyle so worried about his friends getting hurt? There are four of the Undisputed Kingdom (five if you count O’Reilly), and one of MJF. This whole story doesn’t make any sense, Adam and Kyle announced they are in the battle royal for next week, that is the main thing we can take away from this segment.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.75 Stars
AVERAGE Jamie Hayter vs Queen Aminata – International Women’s Cup Qualifier Semi-Final
Another match that I kind of expected more from. There were some cool sequences at times, and it was a very hard-hitting contest, so much so you could hear the strikes from both women echo around the arena at times. But the tempo was slow for the majority of the match, which didn’t really allow the crowd to get into it.
Result: Jamie Hayter by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.75 Stars
GREAT Darby Allin vs Brody King – Continental Classic
Darby Allin walked into this match looking like that one Spongebob meme. The car crash did a lot of damage to him, but Brody might’ve done even more than the crash did. This was very brutal to watch at times, and Brody picked up the win as expected. The end of the match was cool as Claudio was about to take out Darby for good, but Brody came in like a big brother and stopped it from happening.
Result: Brody King by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.75 Stars
Overall…
This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite was below average. Starting with the match quality, which was very much up and down throughout the episode. You had some great matches in Shelton Benjamin vs Mark Briscoe, and the main event in Darby Allin vs Brody King. But then you had other matches which looked great on paper, but sadly didn’t live up to expectations. The storytelling was extremely weak, Kamille turned on Mercedes in probably the worst way AEW could’ve executed that moment. The Adam Cole and MJF feud continued to scratch heads, but even the main event storyline with the Death Riders wasn’t anything to shout about this week. The main selling point of Dynamite this week, was the start of the Continental Classic and while it was a decent start to the tournament, AEW probably would’ve been better off swapping the matches they announced on Collision with the ones they booked on this show. That would’ve felt like a far better way to kick things off for such an exciting tournament. I expected a lot more from Dynamite this week, but much like the match quality, the show was very much up and down and didn’t really lock in to that next gear it needed to for me to give it a higher rating.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere/Crowd/Commentary: 0.5/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.25/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 2.75/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here
