AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (10/16): Moxley’s opening promo, Adam Cole’s explanation, MJF’s response, New Don Callis Family,

Is it a new era in AEW? Sure looks like it. Coming off of WrestleDream, there is a new AEW World Champion. There were major returns in MJF and Adam Cole. There is the impending arrival of Bobby Lashley and Will Ospreay has major beef with Don Callis, Kyle Fletcher, and the rest of the family. This episode of Dynamite is a real opportunity to reset everything and light a fire under the company as they go into the final months of 2024. They have had chances to do this in the past with very mixed results. I’m hoping this will be a Dynamite to remember. Let’s see if it was!

HITS

MOXLEY’S OPENING PROMO

Honestly, I’ve watched about 30 seconds of the opening to the show with Jon Moxley’s post-PPV video package and I’ve already made it a hit. Wow. Okay, I’m going to watch the rest now and be right back…..

Brilliant. What a way to set the stage for “the new era” — Moxley attacked everything: The egos, dancing, having fun… he promised to burn the forest to build a new one… he will do what has to be done… they will make it happen… you can run while you can…. stand down while you can… get out of the way… “you work for me now” — It remains to be seen whether this will pay off long term, but the first two minutes of the show has me excited to find out. I want more.

ADAM COLE’S EXPLANATION

“Fight evil with evil” — The “Devil” storyline ended badly for all involved. There were many reasons for that, but this was not a story where you could just move on without explanation. Cole coming out there and explaining his motivations and flipping the script on MJF was the best option to move forward. Cole is a babyface. MJF is a heel. What came before was far from perfect, but the most important thing AEW can do at this point is give a legitimate reason for Cole’s actions and then go from there. I think they accomplished that.

MJF’S RESPONSE

The best heels truly believe they are right and everything they do is justified. MJF says thanks to Cole he will never trust anyone again and blames him for everything. MJF won’t agree to face him in the ring leaving Cole chasing. Now the crowd clearly wasn’t entirely behind this and it makes sense. The back-and-forth nature of this story will take some time to adjust to. It’s up to the writers to hammer down on making Cole more likable, which should not be hard, but also making MJF unlikable by the majority and that’ll be more work considering how this all started.

THE NEW CALLIS FAMILY

I loved the presentation of the new Callis family and hope that this is finally the one that can be built into a major factor in weekly television. Callis has been underutilized for a while, but having Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher as his top two guys to go along with two other huge monster-type heels is a solid group to wreak havoc upon their opponents. Feuding with the future top star of the company is Will Ospreay is a good start, but I’m hopeful that Callis’ group gets the better of Ospreay at first to keep them strong. We do not need a repeat of Ospreay’s first couple of months in the company where he ran through the Callis family.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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QUICK HITS

– While I don’t need the ROH title defended on Dynamite, announcing Mark Briscoe will face Chris Jericho in a ladder war (whatever that is) next week is an example of smart booking that AEW does not do enough of consistently. If you are not a fan of Jericho, I understand this may not be for you, but if you hate Jericho enough to want to see him get punished by ladders then perhaps you’ll give it a try! Either way, it’s promoting something for next week to try and build anticipation for Dynamite. That’s not a bad thing.

– Big Bill is rolling these days. His left hook to counter the “shatter machine” from FTR was great. He can really be a unique upper mid-card star for AEW if they get behind him.

– MVP is right — The Acclaimed NEEDS a lot right now. I’d LOVE for them to join the Hurt Syndicate.

– The Elite “celebrating” Kenny Omega’s birthday was a nice reminder that Kenny is still a part of the storyline and will return at some point in the future.

– Shelton Benjamin can still be a factor. I enjoyed his match with Lio Rush though it went on a tad longer than it should have considering it was Shelton’s debut. Rush was a good choice as an opponent so Shelton could toss him around and look big and powerful. And if he looked big, Bobby Lashley is going to look huge compared to many of the other performers in AEW. MVP followed up the match with a solid promo, and setting up Swerve vs. Benjamin in two weeks was also smart booking as you’d expect the Lashley debut to occur after that match.

MISSES

MOX GROUP BEATDOWNS

I thought the presentation of the Mox group was great and, on paper, interrupting the show to prove their point is smart. However, choosing Top Flight and the Dark Order to be the one’s standing up for AEW at this point is just dumb. These teams have been devalued for months and/or years and making the audience buy into them as the first teams to stick up for the company is just not a wise direction. I like both of those teams, but Moxley and his minions should be making a statement against better-pushed talent to grab attention. I’m not interested in seeing matches where they dominate lower-card talent over the next couple of weeks.

THE MAIN EVENT

I’m a big fan of Jay White and I thought he took a big step with a win over “Hangman” Page at Wrestledream. However, to put him in a main event against Christian, who wasn’t even on the PPV, and have him lose is frustrating. I know Hangman’s interference is supposed to put the heat on himself, but after how he’s been booked for the past year, Jay White needs sustained wins to move him towards the top of the card. This continued start/stop won’t get him anywhere as I expect Hangman to get his win back now in some way and leave White back where he was before.

This can be saved only if White defeats Hangman again, so I’ll hold out hope for that. Oh, and please don’t end a main event with a distraction/interference finish. That’s too WWE for me.

For the most part, I thought this was a solid reboot of AEW and I’m excited for many of the top stories as we move forward. As always, it’s now up to the company to have a plan and build upon that week after week to make viewers want to tune in.

Don’t forget to check out the weekly free podcast I’m part of, “The All Elite Conversation Club” that typically drops on Fridays the PWTorch Dailycast lineup. Joel Dehnel and I have a great time breaking down all things AEW! Search “pwtorch” on your podcast app to subscribe. Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com.

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RECOMMENDED NEXT: AEW DYNAMITE RESULTS (10/16): Keller’s report on Christian vs. Jay White, Mercedes vs. Aminata, Shelton vs. Lio Rush, plus Mox with AEW Title, Adam Cole returns

OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW Dynamite results (10/16): Barnett’s live review of Mercedes Mone vs. Queen Aminata for the TBS Title, Christian Cage vs. Jay White, Shelton Benjamin vs. Lio Rush, WrestleDream fallout

(You can always reach PWTorch editor Wade Keller at kellerwade@gmail.com. You can also send live event results and news tips to that email.)