Another edition of "AEW Dynamite" is in the books and it was a strikingly solid episode of television. Fresh off of Forbidden Door, AEW has a clear direction heading into All In and this week's episode was a chaotic bit of table setting, as the company nudges the roster towards Wembley.
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As always the Wrestling Inc. Staff had plenty we liked and even some stuff we didn't like so much. From a stellar closing angle to the return of Britt Baker as a conquering heroine, the highs were quite high, while the lows were mainly centered around more of Jericho's...well, Jericho-ness and the overall lack of focus on the upcoming Blood & Guts Match. There won't be much discussion of what happened, that's what the results page is for.
Here are the highs and lows from last night's show.
I have to admit, I really enjoyed this episode of "Dynamite" and actually didn't hate too many things about it at all. Heck, even this little "hated" portion of our humble article penned by me isn't too strong of a hate. More of a suggestion from an armchair booker, I suppose. There are some weeks that I'm among the crowd chanting "Please retire!" to Chris Jericho, and then there are some weeks I find myself amused by the "HEY GUYS!" This week was somewhere in between the two following Forbidden Door.
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"The Learning Tree" (I still hate the nickname, or rather, a description, no matter what, but that's beside the fact here) teamed alongside "The Redwood" Big Bill (okay, I admit that one is clever), and Jeff Cobb to take on Samoa Joe, HOOK, and Katsuyori Shibata. While it made sense for a six-man tag, what I didn't like about that match is the fact it left Jericho still holding the FTW Championship. I think the end goal for this all is to get it back on HOOK, so this feud is continuing. And personally, I feel like it's losing steam, especially following a pay-per-view match better suited for an episode of "Dynamite." We're once again headed for a HOOK versus Jericho match, probably at All In, which sucks, and we still have weeks to go. Tonight didn't do much to further the storyline following the six-man tag match at Forbidden Door, with Jericho just on commentary for HOOK, Shibata, and Joe to take on Cage of Agony. The only thing that furthered it by just a centimeter was Jericho getting Taz kicked off commentary for the night, by the order of the Young Bucks. But that wasn't enough for me.
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While I love the combination of HOOK, Joe, and Shibata as a team, it's time for Jericho to drop the FTW Championship back to the "Coldhearted, Handsome Devil" and move on with the Learning Tree gimmick. It does have some "go away" heat for me, especially from what we can all hear on the broadcast from the various crowd chants, but there are some weeks that it works. I want this title off Jericho, the feud with HOOK to end, and I want to see more Learning Tree storylines with other factions on the roster. Their short-lived work with Private Party was fun and I want more things like that, but smaller little feuds best suited for "Dynamite" rather than a pay-per-view match. I don't think The Learning Tree needs to be involved in anything big until Big Bill hopefully splits from Jericho, which is another story you can tell without HOOK once he has the championship back.
All of that to say, The Learning Tree needs to dump the gold and move on from HOOK, Joe, and Shibata, who are all absolute stars on their own. They need to get out of the Jericho Vortex. And fast.
Written by Daisy Ruth
ROH really is just meaningless at this point. I'm sorry but it's true. ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe stands around with the title on his shoulder but with each appearance on AEW programming, he feels more and more ingrained in the AEW side of things, culminating in him being the very first man to declare himself a member of team AEW for the upcoming Blood and Guts Match. ROH exists on Thursdays, but otherwise, the ROH champion is AEW through and through for better and for worse.
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Mark Briscoe is a delight and every week he is the best promo on AEW programming. Every week I clap with joy when Briscoe cuts one of his unhinged, upbeat promos and then I never seek out a single second of ROH programming. Apologies to that very talented crew.
Shifting the belt to someone who can actually represent ROH on AEW Television, akin to how Eddie Kingston and Claudio Castagonli were presented, might be a good bet. I don't have an actual solution. I just feel like the promotion that once could've been AEW's NXT has instead turned into AEW's version of WWE ECW, a zombie brand that exists solely to keep the bloated roster working.
Written by Ross W Berman IV
Blood & Guts is just a mere three weeks away, and while there isn't a ton that needs to be done from a storytelling perspective given that much of the match has already been built up with The Elite exerting their power and Team AEW pushing back against that on behalf of Tony Khan. From a marketing perspective, though, it seems about time to make more than one member of Team AEW official with the match growing closer and closer.
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The Elite are already a built-in team as a stable, and keeping their fifth teammate a secret keeps some of the intrigue surrounding the match. To AEW's credit, they did have at least one member of Team AEW become official in Mark Briscoe and seemingly revealed some of his teammates by having Kyle O'Reilly coming to the aid of Briscoe while Jack Perry was beating him down and The Acclaimed provide a helping hand themselves when The Young Bucks joined Perry and Kazuchika Okada. It would be an odd choice if they weren't three of the four men to join Briscoe in the match, and would've been very easy to make O'Reilly, Anthony Bowens, and Max Caster official members of Team AEW either after the beat down when they were the ones left in the ring or in a backstage segment later on in the show.
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Written by Olivia Quinlan
