Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "AEW Dynamite," the show that usually has Wednesdays to itself but had to share real estate with "WWE NXT" this week, which wrestling fans will definitely be super cool and chill about when the ratings drop. But while "NXT" took a star-studded, nostalgia approach, using their venue of the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia as an excuse to pay tribute to ECW, "Dynamite" put on more or less a normal show though they did have Powerhouse Hobbs return in the main event.We have strong feelings about that particular turn to discuss here, along with Bobby Lashley getting a match at Full Gear, the latest development in the Jon Moxley storyline, another godforsaken Chris Jericho match, a new Adam Cole promo, and the culmination of Penelope Ford vs.Jamie Hayter.
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Sadly, we rarely get to everything, and we have basically no feelings about the ChristianCage/HOOK segment, but as always you can find more information on that via our "Dynamite" results page. In the here and now, it's time to break down three things we hated and three things we loved from the 11/6/24 episode of "AEW Dynamite."
Maybe it's because I'm just a shill for WWE no matter what I watch, but the Hurt Syndicate is probably my second favorite thing on AEW right now. These guys deserved so much more in WWE, and I'm really hoping they'll get it now. It was fantastic to see them open up "Dynamite," and MVP is such an excellent talker, I was hooked from the start when he shooed Tony Schiavone out of the ring and re-introduced us to Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley. MVP talked Lashley, especially, up so well, talking about his amateur career as well as his time in Bellator and his MMA record. While it can be argued MVP said they're basically after the same thing as the Blackpool Combat Club right now, I'm going to look past it for the moment, because I'm just so excited to see this stable hopefully getting all the greatest they deserve. And with their first major feud, I'm hoping that's the case.
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When Lashley debuted last week, he took out former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland, my personal favorite overall in AEW. Despite Strickland being my favorite, I love this feud and the match between Lashley and Strickland at Full Gear is going to be incredible. This week, it was Strickland who came out, despite multiple referees attempting to hold him back, in addition to Prince Nana, to make that challenge, which also looks great on his end, that he's up to a big challenge like Lashley.
In addition to that match being confirmed for the upcoming PLE, the tease of Ricochet potentially joining the stable is something I'm intrigued by. Ricochet was handed a business card by MVP a few weeks ago, and Wednesday night he said they talked, but the stable said they were just around to wish him well before his main event match. Either way, I love what this is setting up. I want to see both Ricochet joining the Hurt Syndicate to get what he deserves in AEW that he didn't get in WWE, but also, I really, really want to see Ricochet versus both Lashley and Benjamin. That's a no-lose situation for me as a fan, there. I'm sure the argument can be made about "a bunch of WWE guys, blah blah blah," but I'm really enjoying this, between MVP as an excellent manager, Lashley and Benjamin as excellent wrestlers, and the storylines The Hurt Syndicate is bringing now, and what I can see from them in the future.
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Written by Daisy Ruth
The weirdest thing to me about "Dynamite" this week was that The BCC (or I guess the Death Riders now) vs. Orange Cassidy and Darby Allin wasn't the main event. The second weirdest thing was how much that match and its aftermath felt like it belonged on "WWE Raw."
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The finish, in particular, gave me strong WWE vibes. Cassidy goes supernova toward the end of the match, hitting Orange Punches on anything and everything, but before he can hit one on PAC and potentially win, Marina Shafir enters the ring and literally kicks the referee out of it, resulting in the match getting thrown out and a brawl ensuing (she doesn't even use her weird briefcase to do it, even though she insists on carrying it the whole time). Just like when WWE does it, the effect is to make it appear that the heels are ending the match because they're afraid of losing it; that makes them look weak in any promotion, but it especially makes them look weak in AEW, where the best supposedly wrestle, not where the best do a post-match brawl after a no contest finish. Not for nothing, Marina, but do you watch the show? Because it would have taken way more than just one Orange Punch to get a pinfall in an AEW ring, you didn't really need to worry about PAC losing in that moment.
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Once again, I completely fail to understand Jon Moxley's motivations in this storyline, particularly what his "vision" for AEW actually is. Does winning matches matter in Jon Moxley's AEW, or doesn't it? Because you don't have to wrestle in matches if you don't care about winning them, guys, you could just keep attacking Cassidy and Allin backstage or whatever if violence was your entire thing. If you're in charge if your stable is supposedly dominating and looming over the AEW roster that's supposed to mean you get to do what you want. So why would you agree to a match that you don't care about winning? And if Moxley is trying to bring out the best in these original AEW babyfaces in an "iron sharpens iron" kind of way, which is the best explanation for his actions I've gotten so far, why would his stablemates stop a fight that it looked like the original AEW babyfaces might win? Doesn't that defeat the previously stated purpose?
I don't know, the logic of how the entire thing was booked felt very WWE to me, and I won't pretend it helped that the appearance of the Death Riders occurred immediately after the appearance of another, cooler heel stable, and just before Chris Jericho.
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Written by Miles Schneiderman
Speaking of not understanding Jon Moxley's motivations, I still want to know why he hasn't stomped "The Learning Tree" into the pavement yet. Jericho feels like basically everything Moxley has been railing against (soft aging veterans hanging around collecting a paycheck, etc.) and I hope Moxley realizes that soon because I don't know how much longer I can take watching this man wrestle.
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There were two moments from the Fight Without Honor trios match that really just summed up the entire Jericho experience. The first was a spot that involved Mark Briscoe hitting Jericho with a powerbomb while Tomohiro Ishii simultaneously hit Bryan Keith with a brainbuster off the top rope. Somebody's timing was off so it ended being a slow, ponderous set-up to the spot, and right before they went down, Jericho bizarrely reached out a hand and set it gently on Keith's arm, for all the world like he was stabilizing him so he could properly take Ishii's move. It was so blatant that Nigel McGuinness immediately started reaching for an appropriately heelish explanation, spitballing about how Jericho was resigned to both their fates and was essentially holding Keith's hand on the way down.
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Then, of course, there was the finish, which saw Jericho do such an absolutely flawless Hulk Hogan impression that he could teach a course on it. Step 1: Sandbag your opponent when it's time for him to hit his finisher, making it look like it was really hard for Ishii to get him up for the brainbuster. Step 2: Visibly kick out immediately after the three-count so it looks like Ishii just barely got the win. Great job, everyone; you should definitely continue paying this man to make himself and everyone around him look like garbage.
I guess what I'm saying is, if Moxley can't come kill Jericho during "Learning Tree" matches and segments, can he at least come kill me?
Written by Miles Schneiderman
Adam Cole is changing the rules, and I don't know if he's trying to make me feel like a Looney Toon, or if this change is just an attempt to make this storyline more interesting. Which, when I think about it, the fact Cole and Roderick Strong are (were?) both vying for a chance to take on MJF at Full Gear is really strange and dumb to begin with. It's Cole who has beef with MJF overall, and Strong is just Cole's best friend kind of defending his honor. Strong doesn't entirely have anything to do with MJF, other than Friedman is a scumbag who everyone wants to fight, but the fact Cole and MJF's feud never really wrapped up after Cole's major ankle injury took him out for so long is the big thing here. Which, makes the new rule change for Full Gear even worse, in my eyes.
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Cole defeated House of Black's Malakai Black in an effort to get to three victories to face MJF at the pay-per-view, but then when he did get the victory, got on the microphone and explained something that fried my brain a bit. He said when both he and Strong get to three victories, it will be a triple threat at Full Gear. I had to rewind the broadcast for a second there, because I was a bit confused. Huh? Those weren't the original rules. What we were initially told is the first man between Cole and Strong to get to three victories would be the one to face MJF.
Why not just simply book the triple threat match in the first place? Which, unless you're trying to break up Cole and Strong and the Undisputed Kingdom also doesn't make sense. What the fans really want to see is just Cole versus MJF, but with MJF out filming movies and nowhere to be found ahead of Full Gear to build to the match, maybe this does make some kind of sense. Book the triple threat, then we can move on to MJF versus Cole in a singles match at the PPV in December. Either way, the sudden rule change was a bit jarring when Tony Khan just could have straight up booked a triple threat. I guess it's nice to see Cole "warm up" against these other opponents, but you also could have let him heal a bit longer ahead of a major stage. As for Strong, I guess it's nice he gets to do something, but he's pretty disposable in this feud, for now, at least. Hopefully that changes and I'm eating my words by Full Gear, but for now, I'm not a fan of this sudden change.
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Written byDaisy Ruth
It's hard to do a flash win well. Often they'll either be a swift end to a nothing match or they come at the end of a long match leading to something of a whimpering shrug from the crowd. Jamie Hayter's flash win over Penelope Ford was a pitch-perfect flash finish.
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Hayter spent the entire match being just a step behind Ford, with Ford seemingly relishing her rare moment on television. Ford missed a Moonsault and Hayter only needed a swift lariat to end the contest. The ending came out of nowhere, just as it felt like Hayter was going to mount a comeback, instead opting to snuff out Ford's fire quickly.
The brevity of Hayter's offense meant that anyone who tuned out of the match would've missed her win. If done properly and for long enough, Hayter could force fans to pay attention, the finish coming at any second. It's a refreshing change of pace from AEW's many overly competitive matches which can never end until everyone has kicked out of a finisher and often need several dramatic beats. Fresh off the plot-heavy Storm/May feud, Jamie Hayter as the unstoppable, win at any moment, threat to the women's world championship could make for some great television.
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Written byRoss Berman
With the looming question of The Hurt Syndicate, Ricochet went into "AEW Dynamite" with a tag team match against Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita, with the caveat that his opponent was kept a mystery until the "One and Only" made his entrance for the match. I'll admit that I had expected either of Shelton Benjamin or Bobby Lashley, even perhaps Swerve Strickland working in antithesis to the group. So it was a really neat surprise as Ricochet announced that he would be bringing the long-absent "Powerhouse" Will Hobbs back after his contract with the Don Callis Family had expired. Not only did it finally answer the question of where he was in storyline, as since he had got injured he was rarely mentioned on TV by the stable or his manager, but that was actually the crux of the reasoning for this return; he had felt abandoned by the group called his family.
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He and Ricochet then worked a really, fun match with Takeshita and Fletcher, getting the win with Ricochet pinning the International Champion. Hobbs in particular stood out throughout this entire match and segment, so my only hope is that there is something worthwhile in store for him. His return not only a welcome surprise for the show, but he did so looking in great shape and seemingly quick on his feet after his knee injury, and could now be associated even by proxy with The Hurt Syndicate. He has a very logical reasoning for feuding with the Family too, and his win could also have put him in the International Championship picture. Either way, there was a lot of promise shown even in a brief return to the forefront rightfully dealt with as a big deal, so let's hope it's a story of promise fulfilled this time around.
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Written byMaxEverett
