AEW DYNAMITE HITS & MISSES (3/26): MJF and the Hurt Syndicate, Fletcher vs. Brody King, Swerve and Moxley interaction, Omega-Speedball-Ricochet, Toni Storm-Megan Bayne

First of all, thank goodness I wasn’t fired after missing a couple of weeks. Sorry about that. I spent last week in Las Vegas, which was a blast as usual. I was able to catch up with Dynamite through bleary eyes to see nails being stuck in the back of Jon Moxley. Once I realized that was not a dream and actually happened, I was able to process what was a pretty good show and as we continue the build to Dynasty I’m excited for this week’s episode to see what was next. So here we go!

HITS

MJF AND THE HURT SYNDICATE

How intriguing would it be to see MJF join the Syndicate? It doesn’t look like we are going to find out as the tag team champs don’t seem too thrilled about having Max in their group. I always love it when you just hear the wrestlers talking in the ring and don’t need the mic. Bobby Lashley demanding the business card from MJF was much more compelling when he didn’t need it broadcast to the world. I also thought it was smart not to have a conclusion to this story so soon. Following up with a conversation among the Syndicate later in the show was a nice touch as MVP clearly explained his thinking to the group.

KYLE FLETCHER VS. BRODY KING

This was clearly the match of the night. You had two wrestlers who give you a hard-hitting style, but they can also show finesse which is so impressive considering Brody’s build. The chemistry was good and it just makes me wish they would push Brody a little bit more, but they have so many talented performers and somebody has to lose. Fletcher needed to get some wins back and he continues to look amazing in the ring and with his presentation. Kudos to the brutal finisher in this one as the turnbuckle brainbuster looked devastating.

SWERVE AND MOXLEY

Wasn’t it nice to have an intense in-ring promo that didn’t end up turning into a brawl? I don’t mind those, but AEW tends to overdo it at times, so it was a pleasant surprise to have a calm discussion between two guys who clearly respect each other yet have major issues with each other at the same time.

Swerve was solid as usual and had the crowd fully behind him. Moxley seemed more focused in his message and made a lot more sense than some of his ramblings over the past months. Moxley promos are always gold, but having that clear message that anyone watching can understand takes it to the next level. They both have done a good job setting up a match for Dynasty that is too close to call at this point.

TONI STORM VS. MEGAN BAYNE BUILD

Last month I wrote that I was worried about Toni Storm’s character running its course. I was hopeful for a tweak of the character to keep it fresh. While Toni has kept a lot of what makes her character unique, I have noticed a slight change that I think alleviates my fears. It may be a little too overtly sexual in nature now, but she has mostly eliminated the cartoonish facial expressions and kept things a little more serious.

The tag team main event was fun and I liked giving Bayne a pin over the champ to build to their title match at Dynasty. BUT I still want to know more about Bayne!!!

QUICK HITS

– While I thought the Kenny Omega match and comments afterward were well done, and it was nice to hear from Speedball, they should have just left it with those two. Trying to sync up a video message from Ricochet came off minor league to me as the sound wasn’t good. I enjoyed Omega’s meta moment in trying to talk back to the video. In contrast to the seriousness of Swerve-Mox, I like Omega just being himself.

– I very much enjoyed the staredown between Bobby Lashley and Big Bill. I’m hopeful Bill breaks away from Jericho soon and can get a singles push.

– I never thought I’d hear a “Thunder Tits” chant at a wrestling event, let alone a quickly made-up sign!

– The Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe match was a close second to Fletcher-King as the match of the night. Briscoe is always entertaining to me and Takeshita getting wins over quality opponents is a great way to keep him in the mix as they move forward.

– The build to the Owen Hart Tournament has been very solid so far. Putting three big names in there to start and making it clear the winner gets the main event at All-In makes this a HUGE deal. My only hope is that they continue to put big names in there to fill out the brackets so even the first round matches are not predictable.

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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MISSES

I’ve written before that I’m not one to watch a show thinking that I need to find something I hated so I can put it in the “Misses” portion of the column. Were there things I thought were not as strong in this show as they could have been? Sure. The Jericho stuff doesn’t wow me at this point and neither does the Adam Copeland and FTR stuff, but neither of those things are awful so I would not categorize them as “Misses.” Therefore I do not have a clear “Miss” from this episode.

I have to say that while it won’t be a show that will be remembered for a long time, this episode of Dynamite was solid pretty much from start to finish. I thought it was paced well and flowed for two hours and was very entertaining. I also wanted to shout out the crowd in St. Paul. They were loud and engaged. Well done!

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! Joel was in attendance for Dynamite this week so you’ll hear his thoughts from being in the building. Search “pwtorch” on your podcast app to subscribe. Send questions and comments to allelitecc@gmail.com.