HEYDORN’S DYNAMITE RECEIPT 4/13: C.M. turns in another good match, leaves Tony Khan with tough decision

This week’s episode of AEW Dynamite has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-Man, C.M. Punk is fun to watch. Right now, he’s bringing a special focus and attention to his matches. The result is a body of work that is very memorable. The Punk cheers grow each week it seems, leaving Tony Khan with his first major booking decision as President of AEW. To take the world championship off Adam Page, or to not. That is the question and Punk’s popularity is at the center of that debate.

-Speaking of the AEW World Championship – nobody talked about it much this week on Dynamite, but there is a major world title match taking place on a special live episode of Rampage Friday night. To put it nicely, it’s unacceptable for that match not to get some juice on Dynamite going into Friday. What is the thinking behind the move to leave Page and Cole off this show? Regardless, that thinking or lack thereof has been synonymous with Page’s title reign.

-So, if anybody ever asks you to show them the perfect example of an AEW tag team match, break out ReDragon vs. Jurassic Express. This was it. Fast pace, lots of action, big spots, a total lack of regard for rules, and a scorching hot audience making it all worth it. Great stuff.

-FTR and Jurassic Express are seemingly on a collision course with both teams holding tag team gold. Is that the best idea, though? Traditional wrestling philosophy would say hellllllll no. FTR has just turned babyface and Jurassic Express has been a babyface project for AEW since its inception. Forcing fans to choose and diluting reactions for both is entirely counterproductive at this point. Jurassic Express likely needs to lose the titles so FTR can beat someone else for them.

-Are you kidding?! Coming out of Wheeler Yuta’s major elevation after Friday’s Rampage match with Moxley, he gets a backstage vignette? That’s it?! Yuta needed to be in front of that live crowd. They were hot to begin with and would have shown Yuta off to more viewers as significant.

-The MJF and Wardlow stuff is brilliant. Look, the audience wants to see Wardlow demolish MJF and that’s what both men are going for. MJF continues to be the MVP of AEW in 2022.

-I pop for Darby Allin vignettes. Content-wise they’re not always hits, but they are always creative and unique to the show.

-Let’s call a spade a spade. Marina Shafir needs to find a personality. There needs to be a special kind of charisma present to pull off “disinterested.” Think Hook. Shafir doesn’t have it.

-Powerhouse Hobbs with the pin on Keith Lee was unexpected, eh? Smart though. Lee is established at the level he’s at right now and Hobbs continues to elevate. This was another floor up for him.

-Samoa Joe and Minoru Suzuki read that New Orleans audience perfectly. They wanted to slap fest and boy did both guys deliver. The five minutes of slaps and chops to start the match brought the audience to their feet. Great stuff.

-For as great as the Joe/Suzuki match was, the post-match was proportionally bad. The lights out gimmick again? And for Satnam Singh? Look, the lights out gimmick is overdone. BUT. If you’re going to do it, it has to be for a made star. As for Singh, he simply didn’t look good out there. The moves and work on Joe were sloppy and didn’t frame Singh properly as a threat. Hey, you’re not going to hit home runs on every debut. I’d bet Tony Khan wants this one back, though.

CATCH-UP: HEYDORN’S NXT 2.0 RECEIPT 4/12: Natalya heel turn leads championship match heavy show