HEYDORN’S DYNAMITE RECEIPT 3/3: Shaq delivers the best performance he could in a surprising match

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

-That is absolutely the best anyone could have expected from Shaq. The match had some fun spots and Shaq appeared to be enjoying himself out there. I still wonder what the point of it all was. Yes, it drove a number, but in my mind it did damage to Cody. Jade and Red Velvet were excellent. If they catapult to the next level because of this, chalk it all up as a win.

-Let’s hope Matt and Nick Jackson remember that promo. That’s the Young Bucks promo we needed to hear. It wasn’t overly cute and it didn’t confuse the audience. It was simple. They looked like likable babyfaces who were defending their family’s honor. Clear character lanes work and the Bucks found theirs with this. The result was them not only looking like big stars, but looking like stars you wanted to root for.

-Pretty wild to see Tully Blanchard out there at his age. He wasn’t a bumping maniac or anything, but he sure was able to grab the attention still.

-I was glad to see Ryo Mizunami win the AEW Women’s Championship Eliminator Tournament. We’ve been there and done that with Nyla Rose vs. Hikaru Shida. Mizunami vs. Shida should be a great match at the PPV and feeding Shida a fresh opponent is important.

-Sting needs AEW Revolution to happen. His feud with Team Taz has been going on for so long that it’s time to get to the match. The go-home angle worked nicely, but it’s time to see the match and then see where Sting goes next.

-See above analysis on Sting and apply to Adam Page. Hangman needs AEW Revolution to happen too. The guy is leaps and bounds above what he’s doing right now and the holding pattern feud with Matt Hardy pulls him down on a weekly basis. It’s time for the journey. The audience wants to see Page succeed. Tell that story and print money.

-Yes, we got the video package for the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match, but it wasn’t nearly enough of a table setter ahead of what we’re set to see in the main event of Revolution between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega. That hype video sold the story of the match itself and did so successfully, but it didn’t sell the story of Moxley vs. Omega. They needed to be on this show to make their final pitches ahead of what should be a car crash of a match on Sunday. The lack of context or attention to this main event feud on the go-home show was surprising. Tony Khan may think that the match sells itself and maybe it does, but as a booker you need to give the audience a reason to invest in the inevitable violence in a way that matters to them.

CATCH-UP: 3/3 AEW DYNAMITE TV REPORT: Keller’s report on Cody & Velvet vs. Shaq & Jade, FTR & Tully vs. Jurassic Express, Paul Wight speaks