HEYDORN’S AEW DYNAMITE RECEIPT 6/7: First MJF and Adam Cole encounter average at best

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

-Another episode of AEW Dynamite and another very solid match from Orange Cassidy — this time against Swerve Strickland. We’ve see Cassidy open up Dynamite on a regular basis throughout his run with the International Championship and he’s elevated the belt in that spot. This didn’t do a ton for Swerve, but the match and story around the title isn’t really about him right now. This worked for what it was.

-Look, Blackpool Combat Club destroying Chaos was a babyface move in my eyes. Especially in the AEW ecosystem. It likely would have illicit a different response in New Japan. So, the issue with BCC remains. They aren’t heels. Fans don’t want to boo them and it doesn’t seem like the group is all that committed to being heels either as they really haven’t pivoted their presentation much at all.

-Next week’s match against Hung Bucks will be fine, but again, where are things going with these teams? Another tag match doesn’t give the feud direction, it just gives it life support for another week.

-A helluva vignette this week for Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega at Forbidden Door 2. That’s how you sell a match and tell a story. A very strong piece of business for what should be a very memorable match.

-I really like the idea of MJF vs. Adam Cole. It’s the right time and Cole is the top babyface in the company right now and a fresh opponent for MJF. The firs encounter segment between the two this week gets a C grade. The intensity was there and they found a decent root story, but they ran each other down hard. Steroids? Body talk? References to Vince McMahon and WWE roles for Cole that nobody really knows about or should care about? None of that helped this. If anything, that stuff made Cole come across as not worthy for a title match. They almost got there and landed this, but they didn’t. The Championship Eliminator match next week confuses things even more as we’re likely to see MJF’s shoulders pinned, but without losing the championship. To me that’s a moment you want to protect and AEW will give that up because they went to this match now.

-The Hardy and Ethan Page stuff is bad. So, so, bad.

-Hook and Jungle Boy looked like a couple of bad asses in that tag match. Hook had his first big boy match and delivered. Run with this Tony Khan. I didn’t think it would work. It did and now needs some juice to boost its momentum forward.

-Konosuke Takeshita looked great in demolishing Jobber #1 and Don Callis picked up where he left off last week on the microphone. The heat is there right now, but the angle this week held things in place. We need to see this story advance forward soon, so Takeshita and Callis can utilize the heat for something impactful on television.

-Looks like The Gunns are joining Bullet Club Gold? I’ll buy that. Jay White absolutely needed the win. I know, I know, Ricky Starks did too, but that all along was the problem with booking this program. Starks is protected with this finish. Where does he go? We’ll see, but given the announcement of Jay White in the CM Punk return match on AEW Collision, it seems as if Starks vs. White is over.

-Speaking of that Punk announcement, really? The match is going to be fine — good even, but the show needs a hook. How about an angle to get to the match? It’s happening, but why? They missed on this and if you don’t care to see CM Punk tag with FTR, now you know you won’t be missing anything if you don’t watch.

CATCH-UP: AEW DYNAMITE RESULTS (6/7): Keller’s report on Starks vs. White, MJF speaks, TK announces first Collision main event, Statlander vs. Anna Jay