AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (6/26) MJF-Garcia-Ospreay, Jay White rehab continues, Ospreay and Swerve, BCC DQ finish, Jack Perry and Don Callis missing, more

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It’s the go-home show for Forbidden Door and AEW’s last chance to build the card into something that makes the casual fan want to part with $50 on Sunday. While there are a few matches I think have been built very well, they had some work to do with many others. Let’s see how they did.

HITS

OPENING SEGMENT

What a smart way to open the show. MJF immediately grabbed everyone’s attention and bringing out Daniel Garcia in his hometown to go toe to toe with him was a test of all tests, but I think he passed. While this interaction did not have a direct connection to this week’s PPV, it set up some interesting storylines for the future. MJF got a chance to put over Garcia and when Will Ospreay came out to one-up Max, it furthered the tension between those two for what is to come down the line. Ospreay took subtle shots at both MJF and Swerve and when you put it all together, it was a showcase of four stars that could be the focus of AEW for the next few months. With the challenges that Forbidden Door presents for the company, I thought this was a smart way to remind fans of what is to come.

JAY WHITE REHAB CONTINUES

I was so happy to see the Jay White rehab tour continue. The Bang Bang Gang may be shifting to babyface roles and they do have what I think is the best entrance in the company. White and Rey Fenix put on a great match that had the fans invested and White’s clean win to advance in the Owen Hart tournament was a welcome sight.

THE LOVE TRIANGLE

I have enjoyed the build of Forbidden Door’s main event, but the best build by far has been Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa. They have put a lot of time into this program and despite it being a bit odd in places, you know where every participant stands going into Sunday. The tag match was entertaining and the angle at the end where Mariah May takes an accidental champagne bottle to the head set up the eventual payoff at the PPV. Having Mina available over the past six weeks has been the main reason they were able to tell this story so well.

OSPREAY & SWERVE

This was smartly set up as a bookend of the show. Ospreay disrespected Swerve in the first segment by predicting his win and then did the same after their match by swiping the World Title belt out of Swerve’s hand for the second time in a few weeks. Your champion should not take that lightly and he certainly didn’t by leaving Ospreay laying in the ring as the show went off the air. This is the main reason many people will be purchasing the PPV and they have done a great job setting this up as a huge match with so much on the line.

QUICK HITS

– Access to the NJPW stars is difficult in the weeks leading up to the show, but it was nice to see big names like Naito, Tanahashi, Ishii, and Suzuki finally show up and have roles.

– The video package with Mercedes Moné and Stephanie Vaquer was very well done and made good use of Mercedes’ appearance in Mexico.

– Great match between Zack Sabre Jr. and Kyle O’Reilly. Technical matches like these are unique and a lot of fun to watch. Orange Cassidy was great on commentary as his soft tone and one word answers played to his character.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW..

ALSO CHECK OUT OUR 2+ HOUR DYNAMITE POST-SHOW ON YOUTUBE LAST NIGHT

MISSES

BCC FINISH – MOX/NAITO BUILD

Why exactly did the finish of the 6-man tag featuring the BCC have a “WWE finish” with an inexplicable chair shot and DQ? It was a cheap way out and led to a poorly shot “brawl” that was supposed to feature Jon Moxley and Tetsuya Naito but the camera went back to Wheeler Yuta getting beat up by the ring.

A match on the PPV for the IWGP title should be one of the top 3 matches promoted for Forbidden Door, but outside of a couple of Moxley backstage interviews, the importance of that match has not been a priority. They have not done enough on Dynamite to showcase how big this should be and it has been a missed opportunity.

NO CALLIS OR PERRY

I know Don Callis does not have a direct connection to the PPV at this time (other than possibly costing Will Ospreay his match vs. Swerve), but as one of the biggest true heels in the company, he should have a role on the show every week. As for Jack Perry, he’s also had a character that is clicking and it would have been smart to hear from him as well.

I understand they have Rampage and Collision, but right now the ratings for those shows are usually half of what Dynamite has been averaging so nearly half of your audience is not seeing these promos. You don’t have to replay them in their entirety, but a little taste certainly wouldn’t hurt.

This was a good episode of Dynamite which did its best to complete the build to Forbidden Door. They threw a lot at the fans, and there seems to be a lot on the card that will appeal to the hard core AEW viewers and hopefully, for their sake, enough to intrigue the casual fans to spend the money.

For more on AEW Dynamite, I was honored to join Wade Keller for the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering Dynamite last night, so please check that out and continued thanks to everyone listening to The All Elite Conversation Club on the PWTorch Dailycast line-up as well. Joel Dehnel and I will have more to discuss including a preview and predictions for Forbidden Door. Look for that on Friday. Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com.

OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW media call report: Tony Khan speaks with the pro wrestling media ahead of Sunday’s AEW Forbidden Door pay-per-view