Biased Thoughts: AEW Dynamite #185
Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. 5,5k Tickets Sold. April 19th 2023.
The Pillars kickstarted the show and boy thy did drop the ball, they are not the best in the mic and is very clear MJF usually has to carry them (Specially Sammy and Jack Perry) Good news that we will have a singles match as the main event of Double Or Nothing, if I was Khan Darby vs MJF is the main event in Las Vegas.
Britt Baker & Jamie Hayter vs Toni Storm & Ruby Soho (***) Ok match that worked for things we are about to see in an hour, taking out Jamie is important here.
The Elite entered the ring and Omega had the mic, he wanted to talk with the BCC. Bryan then appear in the titantron to distract them and let the cowards attack from behind but The Elite didn´t back down. The numbers game got in favour of the BCC but then Don Callis saved the day by calling one of the best wrestlers in the world and an Omega protegé, Konosuke Takeshita. Omega and Take proceeded to clean house, when Don raised their hands Omega saw Takeshita in an untrust manner, does he trust in Take? We will see. This was the best angle of the show. Tremendously done and the wink at the end of the segment was Elite.
Wardlow vs Powerhouse Hobbs for the TNT Championship (***1/4) The match was fun but the overall booking and build of this feud and the TNT Championship in general has been bad, I KNOW that is the TV Championship but man. The stories are weak and because nobody aside of Wardlow got time to really start cooking in their persona as Champions is just a bunch of meaningless reigns from a Championship that had prestige at some point. Fun match, bad booking.
Jay White vs Komander (****) I´m a huge fan of Jay White, both of this man delivered and even if Komander had a little botch they were able to save it in a great way. Some very good lucha libre. I will be seated to whatever Jay White does in TV.
Jericho & Cole went face to face and this segment worked really well, the Outcast finally had a segment that got great heat and this interconnection in storylines was nice, I really think it needed the blood but regardless, great angle.
Sammy Guevara vs Jack Perry in the First Round of the Four Pillars Tournament (***3/4) Some sick shit from some of AEW´s best. I don´t see them at the main event level at the moment but are tremendous workers. I see DoN with MJF vs Darby Allin for the AEW World Championship and in the opener a match between Jack and Guevara. Very good match.
Rating of the show: 7/10
The positives outweights the negatives and this episode of Dynamite presented great angles and some good matches with very interesting story progression, been the BCC vs The Elite feud the best thing in the show and that has been the trend of every Wednesday night. Still far from the crazy run of Dynamite shows of late 2022 and early 2023, specially in ring but I think we are close from some excellent matches.
Extra Notes:
- Takeshita and the Jay White featured in main spots, couldn´t be happier.
- Komander is #AllElite and deservedly so, tremendous talent.
- Bless Wardlow but his TNT Championship runs are damaging him and the belt and in some cases even the other talent.
- QT is a great prelim guy but he has no business on been with Powerhouse Hobbs, the main aspect of Hobbs getting over with the crowd was because he had tremendous squash matches as well that he looked like one of the coolest wrestlers in TV.
- I know story progression is important but AEW needs to put the best workers in big matches and tag matches soon, that formula worked PERFECTLY from December 2022 through March 2023 with Hangman, Mox, Bryan and Takeshita giving can´t miss matches almost weekly.
