AEW Dynamite October 16, 2024 - Fast Focus
Forward to Full Gear 2024
In a short review of Wrestle Dream 2024 that I shared with friends, I said of the post-PPV state of AEW, “I want something to focus on, and none of it felt focused.” Ambiguous is how I’d best describe the state of stories spinning out of Wrestle Dream. Unclear feud status, wrestlers who may or may not be prominently featured going forward, and a lack of direction overall for the victors. It’s a not atypical state for AEW to be in, especially after a PPV, but it is ever frustrating.
If there’s one thing that can be said about the first Dynamite following Wrestle Dream, it’s that AEW spent two hours working to create focus and direction looking toward Full Gear 2024 on November 23. It wasn’t always successful, and it wasn’t always well done, but a clear effort was made. This is AEW’s running start. It’s even possible to make a tentative Full Gear card, just one Dynamite in.
Failing to develop storylines up and down the card has been a major criticism of AEW in its current era of near-monthly PPVs and special events. This Wednesday’s Dynamite is the clearest response to that criticism yet. It doesn’t come without a cost, but this does feel like a necessary aggressive and temporarily destructive step from which AEW can course-correct.
Moxley’s Mayhem
With Bryan Danielson retiring, the main story spinning out of Wrestle Dream is the rise of Jon Moxley and the repackaged Blackpool Combat Club. In the weeks ahead of Wrestle Dream, the BCC was presented as a violent anti-establishment faction, effectively stealing the idea behind The Elite but removing the meta involvement of Tony Khan (for now). Wrestle Dream saw Moxley win the AEW Championship, saw Wheeler Yuta reluctantly turn heel and embrace the BCC’s new direction, and multiple AEW faces including Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin position themselves in opposition to the BCC.
The problem with the BCC at this point is that no one knows what the fuck they’re really on about. Moxley’s first promo upon his return stated, “This is not your company anymore.” While many theorized at the time that Moxley was hinting at an unnamed backer to the BCC, that’s since yet to be confirmed. In his newest promo, Moxley explicitly states, “You work for me now,” to the AEW locker room. The idea is that Moxley is sick of what AEW has become. He mentions dancing and partying as particularly offensive, making clear that Moxley’s war is against other wrestlers and not AEW’s backroom (lending credence to reporting that Tony Khan ended The Elite’s early 2024 story because it framed him as not in control).
This clarity that Moxley is in charge is another example of AEW responding to criticism and confusion. But that doesn’t mean it provides focus. Despite Moxley and the BCC being given egregious amounts of time on Dynamite, it remains the strangest and most lacking in direction of the promotion. If Moxley hates the state of AEW, what is he going to do to change it other than brawl with other wrestlers, a distinctly typical AEW occurrence? What do wrestlers that oppose AEW risk and why should they care? Moxley retiring Bryan went largely unmentioned on Dynamite. Evil Uno (a heel in weeks prior) mentioned Moxley wanting to take, “food off of [his] plate.” And if AEW’s goal is to make Moxley’s faction look serious, close-ups of Darius Martin’s head being crushed between Marina Shafir’s thighs and Jon Silver chasing after Moxley’s escaping truck aren’t the best way to do it. It’s all quite silly. It’s funny, and even fun, but it has yet to feel like it matters.
Most importantly, the Moxley and BCC angle has yet to establish a direction going toward Full Gear. Moxley is without an opponent. Orange Cassidy seems to be the immediate target, but it could just be a setup for The Conglomeration vs. PAC, Claudio, and Yuta for the trio’s belts. OC also hasn’t been given time to establish why he would care, outside of the strange Jerry Lynn encouragement promo at Wrestle Dream. Darby is another strong candidate to oppose Mox, but he wasn’t on last night’s Dynamite at all. A rematch between the two also seems like it would be too soon. Moxley continues to be the figurehead of the BCC, the face of AEW’s most prominent story, and yet his direction going toward Full Gear remains a mess
Wrestle Dream Feuds Rebooted
Many of AEW’s feuds for Wrestle Dream appear to be on the path to continuation, an increasingly common trend as AEW grapples with near-monthly PPVs. Whether some of these feuds lead to rematches at Full Gear or they all end on TV isn’t clear, but for the time being, their stories aren’t over.
Adam Page and Jay White delivered a stunning opener for Wrestle Dream, with Jay White shocking Hangman and turning his aggression and anger against him. Hangman’s anger doesn’t fade at the end of a match, however. The cowboy interfered in Jay White’s Dynamite match against Christian Cage, mirroring the way Christian interfered to help Hangman against Jay White in a prior match. A post-show promo from White had the Switchblade threaten that Hangman “will burn.” Altogether, a simple and effective turning of the page. It’s still frustrating that Hangman, after an incredibly successful main event win at All Out 2024, is being underbooked. He’s still being featured prominently, at least. The Jay White rematch will hopefully get more time and a better placement on the card than the first match.
Less enticing is a seeming rematch being teased for the Young Bucks and Private Party. While the Wrestle Dream match between the tag teams wasn’t bad, it did leave fans wanting. It wasn’t the caliber of match fans expect of the Young Bucks. Even so, Private Party approached the Young Bucks on Dynamite and asked for a rematch, and weren’t dissuaded when the Young Bucks said no. There was a tease that Private Party could break up if they lost again, though, which does seem like a needed shakeup for the pair. The Young Bucks will hopefully end the Private Party feud on TV with a dramatic tag team explosion of drama and then move on to something more interesting. Kenny and Ibushi are likely to be back soon. Adam Copeland has to pair up with Christian eventually. There’s got to be something coming together soon.
Chris Jericho vs. Mark Briscoe is by far the worst of the confirmed rematches following Wrestle Dream. It is a constant criticism that Jericho feuds outlive their welcome, and the Mark Briscoe feud is just the latest example. Jericho will fight Briscoe in a Ladder War match on next week’s Dynamite. Knowing Jericho, he’ll want his loss traded. That’ll position Jericho as the Ring of Honor champion, which Tony Khan may see as a more attractive choice to shop Ring of Honor to potential streaming or TV partners. It’s a frustrating situation for Briscoe, who was on a great streak before his Jericho feud, though. Even his faction has moved on without him, feuding with the BCC with Rocky Romero in his place.
The last rematch is not confirmed yet, and may not be at all. Ricochet delivered a backstage interview promo in which he said he wanted to face Konosuke Takeshita in a singles match. He’ll instead face AR Fox on Collision, which could derail him into a different storyline. Time will tell. It would be a fun rematch, but what made the Wrestle Dream match great was the inter-faction drama between Takeshita and Ospreay. Ricochet doesn’t bring a story with him, and Takeshita’s championship run deserves more. Still, you can do worse than having a great match.
I mention the rematches at all for a couple of reasons. One, continuity coming out of a PPV is great, but you want the reasons for a feud to continue to be created within the feud itself, not tacked onto the end like you’ve got no other ideas. If you have to stretch a feud out, do it like with Hangman and Jay White with action and drama. Promos don’t do these feuds justice, which is why the continuations of Private Party vs. Young Bucks, Jericho vs. Briscoe, and Takeshita vs. Ricochet on Dynamite were all weak. Second, it’s notable that so many feuds were revisited post-PPV in that AEW is making a greater effort to maintain story momentum. Yes, “I challenge you to a rematch!” is weak connecting fiber, but it’s something. AEW can build on it, and that’s something it usually struggles with after a PPV. Maintaining story momentum also makes it easier to do better next PPV cycle.
Where the Best Wait to Wrestle
AEW is now frequently choosing to open Dynamites with anything but wrestling. This week, it was a 2-minute video package and promo from Moxley about the BCC. Following that, Adam Cole and MJF were given 15 minutes to build their feud. Cole did an in-ring promo and MJF had a pre-recorded video promo. The quality of the promos aside (Cole’s was not great), this is what I see as a truly unfortunate creative shift from AEW.
AEW was built on wrestling. And not just any wrestling, but great wrestling. Fans that tuned into any given Dynamite had a genuine opportunity to see multiple Match-of-the-Year-quality matches, typically in the opener and main event slots. Now, AEW rarely even has an opener. Of the past 8 weeks, three shows started with matches. Only one of those was commercial-free. Going back to January, 17 shows started with a promo and 12 started with a match. In other words, wrestling is being more deprioritized than ever in AEW.
Frankly, I don’t want to see an AEW Dynamite ever start with more than a 2-minute promo. I want wrestling to start every show. But AEW appears to now believe the opening segment is its best opportunity to try and build the profiles of specific wrestlers. In more cases than not, that’s MJF, and MJF does not wrestle very often or often very well. Perhaps if Ospreay, Hangman, or Swerve were seen as deserving of that platform, we would get more wrestling. But they are not who AEW is giving its biggest platform.
I do understand the need and the want to create bigger superstars in AEW. It’s the best way to create a period of growth for AEW. But all of AEW’s largest periods of growth have been due to excellent wrestling. Those periods being when AEW first started airing on TV following its massive 2019 PPV successes, and the period of Kenny Omega and Hangman Adam Page’s championships in 2021, alongside a run of TNT champions including Darby Allin, Miro, Sammy Guevara, and Cody Rhodes’ final run). That period included Bryan Danielson’s incredible early matches and CM Punk’s feuds against Darby, Eddie Kingston, and MJF.
When AEW is delivering consistent great wrestling from the top of a show to its end, it’s rewarded. Whatever it’s trying to do right now? This isn’t AEW at its best, to say the least.
Match of the Night: Shelton Benjamin defeats Lio Rush
In Shelton Benjamin’s debut AEW match, he looked outstandingly strong. I described it to a close friend as 90% Lio Rush, 10% Shelton Benjamin, but Shelton delivered everything he needed to with that 10%. Lio Rush does deserve an incredible amount of credit, though. He worked his ass off in this match. He had endless cardio, took a number of brutal bumps, sold Benjamin’s strength like he had a god’s power, and never looked weak in the process. Lio’s work will make Benjamin and the Hurt Business that much bigger of a deal and there’s rarely a better compliment in wrestling than that.
What’s Next?
Next week’s Dynamite has already confirmed a Ladder War match between Chris Jericho and Mark Briscoe, and Hook will reveal who attacked his father Taz. In other words, Tony Khan is booking the show late as usual and what is confirmed isn’t exactly driving traffic. Regardless.
What’s worth looking forward to in a week is, first and foremost, the tentative return of both Will Ospreay and Darby Allin. The two will hopefully be back in action after a well-deserved week off. Will Ospreay continue feuding with the Don Callis family? Will Darby Allin directly confront Jon Moxley or does he have other priorities? I can’t wait to find out. Can Takeshita fight both of them? Just because?
If we’re lucky we’ll get follow-up from Hangman fucking over Jay White next week. These are two very angry and crazy men and it’s going to be awesome seeing them try to fake murder each other.
While the men of AEW have story aplenty right now, the women have perhaps the least amount of story they’ve had since Mercedes Mone’s debut. Mercedes just beat Queen Aminata on Dynamite in an egregiously TV-ass match and doesn’t have a clear next opponent. Kris Statlander is nowhere to be found and it’s unclear if she’s still chasing Mariah May’s belt or if they’re taking a break for the Anna Jay Battle of the Belts match. Whatever’s going on, the women are all spinning their wheels. Perhaps Toni or Mina will be back next week, or perhaps Hayter will finally get the Dynamite time she deserves. Ha!
What’s likely but I’m not necessarily looking forward to is Adam Cole perhaps getting his first match back, and MJF very likely being involved as well. Expect more of The Elite to be around and yet manage little more than to setup Okada to say, “Bitch!” in creative ways. And, of course, more Moxley and the BCC mayhem silliness.
Until next Dynamite,
-blue