Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
AEW DYNAMITE, APRIL 10, 2024
PLEASE JUST STOP
Here we are again. CM Punk continues to be AEW’s biggest star despite being gone from the company since last August. There are exactly zero positives coming from this. This made everyone involved look extremely stupid and did nothing but confirm that CM Punk was telling the truth and give Drew McIntyre more fuel for his angle with Punk. Ironically, WWE are making more money out of this whole situation than AEW ever have or ever will. The “fight” went down exactly as Punk described, so why did they show it? What exactly was it supposed to prove? Was it supposed to embarrass Punk? Most people think he's even cooler now, especially with the opinion of AEW getting lower in the public opinion with everything they do to try and prove themselves to be the babyfaces in all this. This did nothing to change anyone's opinion on the situation and just keeps this dumb story in the news cycle AGAIN. The effort to work this into a kayfabe situation involving FTR & The Bucks couldn’t have been worse, and did absolutely nothing to enhance their upcoming match at Dynasty. The Young Bucks interview was more really bad stuff, full of inside references that no one will understand or care about and the FTR promo, where they said what most people think about this situation, didn’t get heat on The Bucks, it just made AEW look really bad for doing this. The silence in the arena during most of this spoke louder than anything (Well apart from the CM Punk chants).
No one cares about this outside of dimwits deep in the bowels of the internet. A large number of people have no idea what any of this is about. Many that did, have long moved on and it just reminds people that CM Punk was once the hottest star in AEW, and now is one of the hottest stars in WWE. This was dumb on every conceivable level and every single person involved in putting this out needs to take a long hard look at themselves. I feel sorry for every other person in AEW that is just trying to do their job, and are having everything they do overshadowed by this childish, immature, bullshit. Tony Schiavone’s expression at the commentary desk told you everything you need to know. Take one look online and all you see are people mocking AEW, and making fun of this entire situation. You have to search very hard to find anyone of substance defending AEW. If that was the goal, then mission accomplished. This was self destructive, tone deaf, and unfortunately gave people more reasons to hate AEW. This could very well be looked back upon as a pivotal moment in the history of AEW, for all the wrong reasons and it's just very, very sad to see.
A RHODES FIGHTS A SAMOAN
While a good idea on paper to capitalise on one of the biggest main events in modern wrestling history, having a Rhodes brother challenge a dominant Samoan world champion in the honor of his father was another reminder that AEW are number two. It also reminds people that the biggest babyface star in the business, just like Punk, was once AEWs biggest star, but now is not.
The match itself was fun, as Dustin Rhodes, even at his age, is still a top level worker. The show opening angle with Swerve Strickland attacking Samoa Joe did enough, along with this being an eliminator match as opposed to a title match, to make you believe that Rhodes may have had a chance for an upset win. Swerve coming after Joe at the start of the show, and again at the end of the show, was good stuff and made sense after he was left a bloody mess one week ago. Swerve should be the focus of this company at the minute.
COPE OPEN
Adam Copeland had the best of intentions last week with his speech, aimed at encouraging fans to focus on the positivity in pro wrestling. Well unfortunately his efforts were rendered meaningless this week, as AEW themselves did nothing but refuel the negativity and keep it in the news for another week.
Thankfully, Copeland was back to wrestling this week, because his AEW run has been incredibly fun so far, and much better than his last WWE run. The Cope Open is a great way to get him in the ring with a variety of opponents, especially those that were completely out of the realm of possibility just a couple of years ago. Penta was one such opponent. While this match was way longer than necessary, especially given that Penta is a cold character on the show, it was a fun match, and what a sight it was seeing Copeland engage in lucha spots.
The post match backstage promo was really fun stuff setting up a nice mixed tag match next week as Copeland will team with Willow Nightingale to take on Brody King & Julia Hart.
A MIX OF PROMOS
I enjoyed seeing more promo content on the show this week, even if it ranged in quality, both in content and production. But it does more to move stories along and create interest, than long, cold wrestling matches. We had a fun segment with Copeland and his crew, a really well produced Julia Hart promo, some funny stuff with Katsuyori Shibata using google translate, which is a great bit. We then had a Mercedes Mone interview that was hampered by distracting camera work, on top of feeling very unnatural at times, especially when it came to Mercedes being mysteriously attacked.
Will Ospreay has been a revelation as a promo thus far in his AEW run, however his decision to address Triple H’s comments was not a good one. Again, this was a reference to a throw away comment on a youtube show, that unless you are in the deepest darkest depths of the internet, would have no idea what any of this was about. And that's with the assumption that Triple H was even talking about Ospreay. I get why Ospreay wanted to do it, but it doesn’t help anyone. When AEW began in 2019 as a challenger brand to a WWE product that was at its lowest point in fan opinion, it was a good move to take shots against WWE, it's what people wanted and fed the fanbase they were going after. They wanted to root for the rebellious upstart promotion fighting against the machine. In 2024 it's a different world. WWE is good again, and the majority of people are enjoying it. The disgruntled fans seeking an alternative are dwindling in numbers and it serves no purpose to play to them, other than to remind people you’re number two, on top of wasting valuable air time on things that will never lead to money making matches. Once we got this out of the way, Ospreay cut another excellent promo, that DID add more interest to his upcoming dream match with Bryan Danielson.
I can be reached at matthewmacklin90@gmail.com
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
