Performance Review – AEW Dynamite (7/29/20)

Overall Evaluation and Achieved Goals

I didn’t much enjoy this week of AEW Dynamite, though it was more a rare miss than a reflection on the territory as a whole. It was a lesser version of stronger shows over the last few months, with more off-putting things than usual: a rare crappy 10-man tag, bad flashbacks to The Dark Order vs. The Elite, a struggling women’s division, a Funkadactyl… just more bad vibes than Dynamite needed.

Areas of Excellence Within Performance

AEW is still fun though. A weak show was still filled with plenty of solid wrestling and wrestlers.

They are still handling most of the organization’s pillars well: The Elite is neither overexposed or underexposed, even if a Dark Order feud would veer them off into disappointing territory. Cody and his TNT Title is starting to guarantee something of interest every week, while Jon Moxley is the headliner bringing guys like Darby Allin and Ricky Starks up with him. The Darby/Mox staredown at the end was the coolest thing on this show, as it should have been.

Cody vs. Warhorse was a solid match that continued this gimmick of Cody having competitive wrestling matches with all the most random people from the undercard to the independents. The Artist Formerly Known as Zack Ryder running out afterwards was a cool surprise too, even if stuff like that might never not feel weird without a real crowd. I do like that AEW is able to debut folks at whim and create legitimate surprises, from the now signed Eddie Kingston to Matt Cardona – it scratches that itch.

I wanted to write “and I’ve been real itchy” at the end of that, but it sounded really really weird.

Kenny Omega & Hangman Page continue to deliver good AEW World Tag Team Title matches, a better consistency than Cody himself. This week was with The Dark Order who nearly met the promise of the goofballs who showed up on TV almost a year ago. None of these matches has stood out as super unique but they also do a good job of showcasing the movesets of teams that aren’t always on TV.

Until Dark Order has a guy that’s a killer though, both them and The Elite look like idiots while staring each other down. I wish Brodie Lee was it, but suit-wearing talking guy Brodie Lee isn’t it.

Hey, yeah, MJF‘s promo challenging Jon Moxley was really good. I wish he saved that “talent over tenure” line for a better show though.

Suggested Areas of Improvement

AEW’s women’s division still stinks, even if I loved Hikaru Shida acting like her win over Diamante was HUGE. It was an enhancement match in a division with no challengers embarking on a tag team tournament kicked off by the return to wrestling television of the former Cameron, now Ariane. Ariane seems nice, but WHAT? Make this better!

The Inner Circle is starting to aimlessly wave in the wind a little too, and it wasn’t just the clunky 10-man tag. We all should’ve known Jericho was out of ideas when he had buckets of orange juice spilled on him.

My Favorite Things

3. Thumbtack Skateboard!!
2. Hangman Adam Page
1. Hikaru Shida acts like her win over Diamante is the biggest of her life

Official Star Rating

2.5 out of 5 Stars

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